'These are realist stories, told in plain language, that deal with the big, thumping, primary-coloured horrors of life: disease, divorce, damage and death. Every story in this book is about at least one of those things. In the hands of a less gifted writer this would be a recipe for disaster but Black's insights, like her sentences, are as clear as water yet consistently original and enlightening ... Black's direct and unsentimental approach somehow reminds the reader these nightmares commonly infest our own lives and must be faced, dealt with and endured.'

'**Pick of the Week**', Kerryn Goldsworthy (Sydney Morning Herald)

'The 10 finely wrought stories in Robin Black's debut collection, If I Loved You, I Would Tell You This, took eight years to write. Nuanced, perfectly pitched and striking in their revelatory endings, they each show time well spent. While the stories read with deceptive ease, Black's fine, patient workmanship remains apparent.'

Jennifer Levasseur (The Weekend Australian)

'This book is not a fast read. Rather, it offers the kind of storytelling that's so deft, so understated, and so compelling that you have to slow down to savor each vignette ... she's a nervy new writer to watch.'

'Oprah's Summer Reading List 2010', (O, The Oprah Magazine)

'American author Robin Black captures the most fragile of human emotions and the dialogues we have with our hearts, with elegance and simplicity.'

(Yen Magazine)

'Ten stories cast an unsparing yet tender eye on the human condition ... Sensitive insights conveyed in elegantly plain prose—an auspicious debut.'

(Kirkus (starred review))

‘Elegant and brimming with surprising, subtle insights — I finished each beautifully measured story with a sigh of pleasure.’

Cate Kennedy

'Robin Black's men and women have been around the block — in fact, they've done laps around the block — and are suffused with a fierce and hard-won knowledge about life, about love and loss. It's wisdom that fills these characters. Like bulletins from the front, these magnificent stories shine a light on what it means to be human.'

Dani Shapiro, author of Black and White

'This collection of short stories might more accurately be called a collection of short novels, such is their richness of characterization and plot. And the writing! It's the best I've seen in years, literally. I was immediately engaged with and entertained by every story here, without exception, and I was moved and enlightened by them, as well. Robin Black is an old soul who is a new addition to my short list of favorite authors. She is worthy of every bit of the high praise that is sure to come her way.'

Elizabeth Berg, author of The Last Time I Saw You

'It is difficult to believe this collection isRobin Black's debut – such is her mastery of both characters and dramatic timing ... Black's writing is simple, without a word out of place. We should hope there will be more from her soon.'

'**Four and a half stars**', Annie Condon (The Big Issue)

'These stories are full of surprises. They start with the familiar, drawing the reader in with the beauty and precision of their prose until, suddenly, in the middle of a suburban family drama, Italian bandits appear. But what makes If I Loved You, I Would Tell You This such an exquisite collection is the way Robin Black brings these same unpredictable elements into the emotional lives of her characters, creating that special kind of literary magic, where a reader experiences everything, right alongside, and it all feels new.'

Hannah Tinti, author of The Good Thief

'Robin Black knows people. She knows us, she loves us, she takes pity on us and she offers us back to ourselves in clear-eyed and graceful prose. Her people are alive on these pages in all their glory — heartache and joy, infidelity and loyalty — and stay with us.'

Amy Bloom, author of Away and Where the God of Love Hangs Out

'Robin Black’s stories are beautifully measured and composed in their engagements with emotional crises that are harrowingly intense, if not catastrophic. Few first collections — few collections of any sort — are as intelligent and as moving about both the durability of love and the implacability of loss, or about the ways in which contingency can undo and remake us; about, finally, the damage done and the repair work to come.'

Jim Shepard, author of Like You’d Understand, Anyway

'Poignant ... well-written explorations of characters and situations sure to appeal to readers of Alice Munro and Mary Gaitskill.'

(Booklist)

'Eight years of writing and revision result in a high-caliber short story collection reminiscent of works by Atwood and Paley ... Like fine chocolate or wine, a little Black goes a long way. Savor this collection slowly and reflectively, then share with a friend.'

(Library Journal)

‘These stories attend to family, in all its shape-shifting, schismatic glory; Black is a talented new author who writes with the empathy, concern and open-mindedness her subject deserves.’

Catherine Ford

'Each story reads like a mini-novel because the paragraphs pack a punch; worlds are contained in a single page. And the writing ... oh, the writing.'

(San Francisco Chronicle)

'Black’s assurance and command are matched throughout by the subtlety with which she builds intricate layers of emotional residue and follows the circuitous pathways of memory.'

(The Daily Beast)

' ... in every story, she creates wonderful little images, sees symbols, double meanings, poetry everywhere ... Black has that certain something, that knack for poetic insight, that short fiction needs to truly sparkle.'

(Philadelphia Inquirer)