The Travelling Hornplayer

Selected as a Radio 4 Good Read by Maggie O'Farrell__‘Sprinkled with magic’ - Sunday Times ‘Audacious, energetic and dazzing … There aren’t many novelists whose stories one doesn’t want to end, but Barbara Trapido is one of them’ - Philip Hensher, Mail on Sunday__Sisters Ellen and Lydia live out an idyllic girlhood in Oxford, their wayward adventures of no concern to their passive, donnish father and their chilly stepmother. Even when Lydia is killed in a car accident, death isn't enough to keep her from her sister, cheerfully returning to haunt her. But Ellen, unwittingly, is herself haunting the lives of those around her: there is Jonathan Goldman, whose flat Lydia is running from when she is knocked down; his daughter Stella, the 'nuisance chip'; and Stella's genius painter-boy lover Izzy.As Trapido's myriad pairings collide, part, and then reunite in breathtaking comedy of manners, The Travelling Hornplayer climaxes in a joyful and unexpected finale.__‘Reading Barbara Trapido is sheer pleasure’ - Independent on Sunday Books of the Year‘This woman is brilliant. And she actually makes you laugh … I enjoyed every page of this book, which is so shimmering with wit, hectic energy and crazy convolutions of plots that I ended up in a state of sublime, satiated exhaustion’ - Daily Mail 'She has the mind-teasing skills of a crime-writer combined with a sense of humour as dry as a Martini' - Sunday Telegraph

“'The woman is brilliant. She deserves to be up there, topping the bestseller lists and winning all the prizes. And she actually makes you laugh ”

Pungent with life, with wit, love yearning and grief, The Travelling Hornplayer is Barbara Trapido’s most entertaining and powerful novel to date. Her fans might be forgiven for thinking this writer couldn't get any better. She just has GUARDIAN
Murdochian entertainment: a tragicomedy of errors. Trapido ... races along with a kind of nervy glamour NEW YORKER
This woman is brilliant. She deserves to be up there, topping the bestseller lists and winning all the prizes. And she actually makes you laugh … I enjoyed every page of this book, which is so shimmering with wit, hectic energy and crazy convolutions of plots that I eneded up in a state of sublime, satiated exhaustion DAILY MAIL
Sprinkled with magic SUNDAY TIMES
An entrancing, quirky confection packed with such a rich mixture of fun and pathos that readers may need to pause occasionally, if only draw emotional breath … She has the mind-teasing skills of a crime-writer combined with a sense of humour as dry as a Martini TELEGRAPH
Witty ... moving ... clever, warm-hearted NEW YORK TIMES BOOK REVIEW
A funny, cunning and surprisingly sexy novel, which moved at least this reader to both tears and laughter SUNDAY TIMES
The brilliant [Trapido] ... is one of the better-kept secrets of contemporary letters ... [She] is a great novelist; sooner or later the whole reading world will know it SAN FRANCISCO CHRONICLE
Audacious, energetic and dazzing … The vividness, and the immediately engaging style, is as sure as ever, and the Dickensian swiftness with which she can draw a character is full of charm … There aren’t many novelists whose stories one doesn’t want to end, but Barbara Trapido is one of them -- PHILIP HENSHER MAIL ON SUNDAY
Reading Barbara Trapido is sheer pleasure. Afterwards, I went out and bought everything else she has written - and am only disappointed I didn't do it earlier INDEPENDENT ON SUNDAY

Barbara Trapido is the author of seven novels, including five in the acclaimed and beloved Oxford series. She lives in Oxford.

Lydia is killed in a car accident, but she returns to her bereft sister as a benign ghost who, nonetheless, comes to haunt the lives of those around her in unexpected ways: Jonathan Goldman, whose flat Lydia is running from when she is knocked down; his daughter Stella, who has discovered that her father has been having an affair with the gladiatorial Sonia; Stella's genius painter-boy lover Izzy, whom she leaves behind as she flees to the arms of kindly Peregrine. Along with good stepmothers, bad mothers, strange professors and wicked monks, their lives collide in a breathtaking finale.

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