num_pages: 158
description: 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 inside a sinister retirement home, where the elderly must inhabit buildings shaped like igloos, 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 recounting the life of the Abbess, a joyous and brilliant surreal adventure begins to unfold. Written in the early 1960s, The Hearing Trumpet remains one of the most original and inspirational of all fantastic novels.
language: English
title: The Hearing Trumpet
titlecomplete: The Hearing Trumpet
characters: Marian Leatherby, Vera Van Totch, Galahad, Carmella Velazquez, Veronica Adams, Georgina Sykes, Natacha Gonzalez, Muriel, Dott. Gambit, Maud Somers, Christabel Burns, Robert, Anna Wertz
genres: Fiction, Magical Realism, Classics, Surreal, Womens, Literary Fiction, Art, Fantasy, Literature, Novels
ratings_count: 7272
publisher: Penguin Books