There are two customer reviews for this on Amazon UK, not entirely dissimilar, one being mine: "As a summary of contemporary academic Quranic scholarship, there are few books to compare to this one. Despite a number of contentious standpoints and omissions, Cooks glib tone and dry wit and have won him many admirers, and his doesn't let up even in the face of this most sacred Muslim text. Yet whatever the books merits or otherwise, Cook does not succeed in providing an introduction that would make sense to people without substantial study experience in either religious or Islamic studies. There is sparce consideration of the actual content of the Qur'an - except to illustrate academic disputes, and allusions to Veda, Confuscius and other sacred texts would simply fly over the head of most non-specialists."