Trumpet

Trumpet

by JackieKay (Author)

Synopsis

The death of legendary jazz trumpeter Joss Moody exposes an extraordinary secret. Unbeknown to all but his wife Millie, Joss was a woman living as a man. The discovery is most devastating for their adopted son, Colman, whose bewildered fury brings the press to the doorstep and sends his grieving mother to the sanctuary of a remote Scottish village. A novel about the lengths to which people will go for love, Trumpet is a moving story of a shared life founded on an intricate lie, of loving deception and lasting devotion, and of the intimate workings of the human heart.

`Jackie Kay makes the unbelievable gloriously real. Trumpet is a love story and a lament, beautifully told' Time Out

`The voices in this tender, compassionate work were still singing in my head a couple of weeks after I'd finished it' Observer

`This book is all about love . . . The qualities of sympathy and tenderness in the novel make it special and make Kay a writer to respect' Guardian

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More Information

Format: Paperback
Pages: 200
Publisher: Picador
Published: 04 Mar 2011

ISBN 10: 0330511823
ISBN 13: 9780330511827

Media Reviews
WINNER OF THE 1998 GUARDIAN FICTION PRIZE It has a humanity and sympathy which engaged me from start to finish. And its energy and directness made it a treat to read. . . . [Trumpet makes] us see that people apparently very unlike ourselves are in fact very much like ourselves. . . . Love is not usually such a triumphant idea in modern writing, but I think Jackie Kay makes it believably and vividly so. -- Ian Jack, Granta Kay spins a love story, a fairy tale, and a psychological thriller out of one deep secret. She has a great gift for delving inside sundry souls, making poetry of their quirks. At its best, her prose ripples like jazz and brims with exquisite insights. -- Andrea Ashworth, author of Once in a House on Fire Jackie Kay makes the unbelievable gloriously real. For a first novel this is remarkably assured, full of melody and tension. Each character is given a singing part, bouncing notes and harmonies off each other as Joss's story is teasingly, movingly revealed. ...Trumpet is a love story and a lament, beautifully told. -- Eithne Farry, Time Out A hypnotic story...about the walls between what is known and what is secret--. Spare, haunting, dreamlike. --- Time Splendid...[Kay's] imaginative leaps in story and language will remind some readers of a masterful jazz solo. --- The San Francisco Chronicle
Author Bio
Jackie Kay was born in Edinburgh. She is a poet, novelist and writer of short stories and has enjoyed great acclaim for her work for both adults and children. She has published two collections of stories with Picador, Why Don't You Stop Talking and Wish I Was Here, and most recently her memoir, Red Dust Road. She teaches at Newcastle University, and lives in Manchester.