The Hearing Trumpet Av Leonora Carrington

<p>WITH AN INTRODUCTION BY ALI SMITH<br><br>A classic of fantastic literature, Leonora Carrington''s <i>The Hearing Trumpet</i> is the occult twin to <i>Alice in Wonderland, </i>published with an introduction by Ali Smith in Penguin Modern Classics.<br><br>One of the first things ninety-two-year-old Marian Leatherby overhears when she is given an ornate hearing trumpet is her family plotting to commit her to an institution. Soon, she finds herself trapped in a sinister retirement home, where the elderly must inhabit buildings shaped like igloos and birthday cakes, endure twisted religious preaching and eat in a canteen overlooked by the mysterious portrait of a leering Abbess. But when another resident secretly hands Marian a book recounding the life of the Abbess, a joyous and brilliantly surreal adventure begins to unfold. Written in the early 1960s, <i>The Hearing Trumpet </i>remains one of the most original and inspirational of all fantastic novels.<br><br>Leonora Carrington (1917-2011) was a British born Surrealist painter and writer described, alongside people such as Pablo Picasso and Joan Miro, as one of the leading lights of the Surrealist movement. Born in Lancashire to a strict Catholic family, she first came into contact with surrealism through her lover, Surrealist painter Max Ernst, before moving to Mexico in 1942. <i>The Hearing Trumpet</i>, her most famous piece of writing, was first published in France in 1974.<br><br>If you enjoyed <i>The Hearing Trumpet</i>, you might like Fernando Pessoa''s <i>The Book of Disquiet</i>, also available in Penguin Modern Classics<i>.</i><br><br>''Reading <i>The Hearing Trumpet</i> liberates us from the miserable reality of our days'' <br>Luis Buñuel<br><br>''One of the most original, joyful, satisfying and quietly visionary novels of the twentieth century''<br>Ali Smith<br><br>''This book is so inspiring...I love its freedom, its humour and how it invents its own laws. What specifically do I take from her? Her wig''<br>Björk</p>