The Hearing Trumpet

WITH AN INTRODUCTION BY ALI SMITH. A classic of fantastic literature, Leonora Carrington's The Hearing Trumpet is the occult twin to Alice in Wonderland, published with an introduction by Ali Smith in Penguin Modern Classics.

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, The Hearing Trumpet remains one of the most original and inspirational of all fantastic novels.

'Reading The Hearing Trumpet liberates us from the miserable reality of our days' - Luis Bunuel * 'One of the most original, joyful, satisfying and quietly visionary novels of the twentieth century' - Ali Smith * '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' - Bjork