“[A] refreshing snappy crime caper” —The Herald (South Africa)

“[P]olished prose lifts the tale up, raises the tension step by step” —NY Journal of Books

"[Annas] turns this cat and mouse game into a life and death struggle that catches you up in its drama and suspense." —Lively Arts magazine

“The Wall is a breathless, irrepressible thriller that packs a punch.” —NB Magazine

"The Wall was a thrilling chase through an unusual and surprisingly frightening setting: a well-to-do gated community in South Africa [...] Moses is a compelling every-man protagonist, caught up in a case of mistaken identity, and the cinematic quality to the story telling takes you running right alongside him as he eludes capture." — Natalie Draper, librarian Richmond Public Library (Virginia)

"75 Notable Translations of 2019," —World Literature Today

"The story takes place over just two short hours — filled with twists and turns and non-stop chases along the way. The Wall is an intense thriller, with second-by-second near misses [...] An exploration of racial profiling, class, exclusion, and chance." —Shelf Unbound Magazine

"This novel unspools at a sprint: split seconds decide over life and death, twists and turns are plotted with an author’s stopwatch, multiple strands entangling, separating, knotting up—with fateful, in the end also fatal consequences. The Wall is a portrait in black and white of the new South Africa, with fully realized characters—even the police dog has psychological depth—drawn from across this dynamic country’s fragmented society. The Wall is also, as the title suggests, an allegory of both enclosure and separation: characters locked in their gated communities, locked inside their lives—or locked out. What a romp!"— Jeff Garrett, librarian Evanston Public Library and co-owner Bookends and Beginnings bookstore

"Max Annas deftly weaves together suspense, humor, and social commentary in a fast-paced story about class conflict and survival. The Wall is a taut, captivating thriller. Highly recommended." — Sam Wiebe, award-winning author of Invisible Dead and Cut You Down.

"Sometimes a crime novel comes along that hits pay dirt. The Wall is one of those. It takes you up and rushes you through to the mad-cap ending and leaves you wanting more. The characters are wonderful, their antics more so, and, to top it all, the story is laugh out loud hilarious. Long have I suspected that this is how life plays out in South Africa's gated communities. If you like your crime fiction fast and funny, then The Wall is your book." — Mike Nicol, author of Agents of State and Sleeper

"The Wall keeps the reader running alongside the protagonist who goes searching for help in the wrong place at the wrong time. Set in South Africa, this movie-like thriller is a must-read for anyone who loves fast-paced action." — Anja Gutbrod-Pollitz, Towne Center Books, Pleasanton California

Praise for the German edition of The Wall

"Annas works like a film director, bombarding us with shot and counter-shot. From 115 occasionally fragmented perspectives, the reader races to the explosion in "The Pines." An actual shootout. In actuality, THE WALL is one solitary shootout... THE WALL is a fantastic, yet very funny, novel... Fast, hard and dangerous. A cheetah in book form." — Die Welt

"Fear and distrust of anyone who counts as 'the other.' [...] For all this, Max Annas needs only 221 pages, jam-packed with action, thrills and suspense. A brilliant success!" — Deutschlandradio Kultur

"Ducking, hiding, running - these are what drive the novel's dynamics, its minute-by-minute choreography. Instincts dictate behaviors. In this case: prejudice, aversions, and racism." — Süddeutsche Zeitung

"Max Annas' thriller mesmerizingly elegant in its composition. Lightfooted, though never a lightweight." — Frankfurter Rundschau

"Private security, police, a pair of thieves: a witch's cauldron bubbling with paranoia and racism. Grotesque to the power of ten, action that cuts to the quick." — Die Zeit

"Although the novel takes place in a very concretely described South Africa, because of its [thematic] constellation, it carries global relevance. In the end, it is about outside and inside, about inclusion and exclusion, about the devastating impact of racism in which there are only losers, about hysterical, ultimately uncontrollable violence as the presumed Ultima Ratio of fear and distrust of 'the other.' The wall does not provide protection against the realities of the world. It merely produces more conflicts, more violence, more suffering. It becomes the overarching metaphor that is connected to concepts like "Fortress Europe," border walls, and even Donald Trump's Mexican wall project, without ever becoming overbearing in its association." —Thomas Woertche, Deutschlandradio Kultur

"Max Annas possesses an astonishing ability for packing clever plots into concentrated, riveting thrillers that don't have a single extra gram of fat on their ribs." — Ulrich Noller, Westdeutscher Rundfunk

"We are live as Annas tells his story in short, breathless sentences and rapidly changing perspectives in real time, all within 220 crisp pages. And this is not achieved at the cost of details or descriptions of the visual landscape or personal relationships. To the contrary... More this time than in his other novel, Annas has borrowed with relish from the great film stylists. The labyrinth motif and the "wrong man": taken from Hitchcock. The accidental doppelgaenger, the harmless crooks (the pair of thieves) who end up way over their heads in a situation in which a deep freezer plays a role, a lost suitcase full of money found by an extremely needy bystander, and the final death dance depicted in something like a time loop: Sam Peckinpah, Quentin Tarantino and the Coen Brothers are very clearly waving from behind the backdrop... You would not do any disservice to Max Annas' thriller if you could just as easily imagine it playing out in Dallas, Baton Rouge or St. Paul." — Christiane Mueller-Lobeck, Die Tageszeitung