“Take What You Need is Ms. Novey’s first novel set in the United States, and her most autobiographical. It is also her most moving ... Fast-paced and tightly structured ... Take What You Need is a heart-rending book, but it’s also a beautiful celebration of 'the glorious pleasure of erecting something new,' be it a work of art or a human connection.”

“Impressive ... The novel’s cleverness — its commitment to ambivalence and complexity and discomfort — is haunting, and, for a divided nation, it’s a salutary tale.”

“Elegiac and unsettling ... The best fiction can explore such dilemmas more meaningfully than a thousand think pieces ... She probes the tender wound.”

“What may mark this novel out as unusual, even rogue, is its focus on two starkly distinct women from two generations who've fought bravely for what they managed to gain ... Novey's prose, brisk and direct, tacks back and forth in time ... The novel fulfills its first line's proposition: as an incantation of an artist's name and, by implication, an artist's way.”

“Novey pushes back against the fairy tales we’ve told ourselves about polarizing places like Appalachia, spinning a far more artful story.”

"A delicate meditation on art, family, and ugliness."

"A major novel of contemporary America"