num_pages: 277
description: "'Take my camel, dear,' said my aunt Dot, as she climbed down from this animal on her return from High Mass." So begins The Towers of Trebizond, the greatest novel by Rose Macaulay, one of the eccentric geniuses of English literature. In this fine and funny adventure set in the backlands of modern Turkey, a group of highly unusual travel companions makes its way from Istanbul to legendary Trebizond, encountering potion-dealing sorcerers, recalcitrant policemen, and Billy Graham on tour with a busload of Southern evangelists. But though the dominant note of the novel is humorous, its pages are shadowed by heartbreak as the narrator confronts the specters of ancient empires, religious turmoil, and painful memories of lost love.
language: English
title: The Towers of Trebizond
titlecomplete: The Towers of Trebizond
genres: Classics, British Literature, Travel, Religion, Humor, Novels, Historical Fiction, 20th Century, Literature, Fiction
ratings_count: 1658
places: Turkey
awards: awardedAt: -441820800000
name: James Tait Black Memorial Prize
category: Fiction
publisher: NYRB Classics