“He has been variously described as ‘the strongest literary critic we have’, ‘the most influential critic of his generation’ and ‘one of the few living practitioners of his craft who will be read 50 years from now’. His new book, How Fiction Works, as its faux-utilitarian title ironically implies, is a position paper, a manifesto, a distillation of the arguments and opinions that have underpinned Wood’s criticism and reviews over the past 15 years.”