‘The lyrical, impassioned and culturally rich prose of The Book of Dirt, and its moral force, bears echoes of such great Jewish writers as Franz Kafka (Presser inherited his grandfather’s copy of The Trial), Elie Wiesel, Primo Levi, Isaac Bashevis Singer and Cynthia Ozick. It is a major book, and one for the times: while I was reading it, neo-Nazis in America brought fatal violence to Charlottesville, and, in Melbourne, neo-Nazis placed posters in schools calling for the killing of Jews to be legalised. The Book of Dirt is a courageous work, as necessary for us to read as it was for Presser to write.’ – Saturday Paper

• Winner, National Jewish Book Awards, Goldberg Prize for Debut Fiction, United States, 2018
• Winner, Voss Literary Prize, 2018
• Winner, NSW Premier’s Literary Awards: Christina Stead Prize for Fiction, 2018
• Winner, NSW Premier’s Literary Awards: UTS Glenda Adams Award for New Writing, 2018
• Winner, NSW Premier’s Literary Awards: The People’s Choice Award, 2018
• Longlisted, Nib Waverley Library Award, 2018