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The Travelling Horn Player
 
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The Travelling Horn Player (Paperback)

by Barbara Trapido (Author)
4.4 out of 5 stars See all reviews (18 customer reviews)

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2 new from £4.25 131 used from £0.01
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Hardcover (First Edition) 50 used & new from £0.01
Paperback £7.99 £4.79 13 used & new from £1.99

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Product details

  • Paperback: 272 pages
  • Publisher: Penguin Books Ltd; New edition edition (1 April 1999)
  • Language English
  • ISBN-10: 0140260137
  • ISBN-13: 978-0140260137
  • Product Dimensions: 19.6 x 12.8 x 2.2 cm
  • Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars See all reviews (18 customer reviews)
  • Amazon.co.uk Sales Rank: 306,856 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

    Popular in this category:

    #13 in  Books > Fiction > Authors, A-Z > T > Trapido, Barbara

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Product Description

Amazon.co.uk Review
Twined around Schubert's Die schöne Müllerin (which her mathematician father often sang), award-winning novelist Barbara Trapido's fifth book unravels the interconnected histories of Ellen, Jonathan and Stella and their friends, lovers and relations. Part Bildungsroman, part La Ronde, the novel's focal point is the moment when Ellen's younger sister Lydia is run over and killed outside novelist Jonathan Goldman's London flat.

Ellen and Lydia--or, to their headmaster father, "Gigglers One and Two"--were as close as sisters could be. They read romantic novels and giggled, talked about sex in front of their tiny stepmother and giggled, and helped Lydia's godmother make carrot cake for Jonathan, aka "The Novelist" and giggled. Then Lydia is killed. And Ellen stops giggling. She returns to Edinburgh University to discover her flatmates gone, leaving only a copy of Heart of Darkness and a drawing in lieu of money for the gas bill.

Rich and kindly Pen, older than his 23 years, and the madly talented artist Izzy have graduated. But what's happened to Stella, the obsessive and naive red-headed cellist?

Starring an array of attractive eccentrics, riven with elegant coincidence, and culminating in an utterly theatrical denouement, Trapido's fable of love and loss, families and loneliness, sex and religion, is romantic as Schubert, clever as an Oxford mathematician and heartbreaking as anything. --Lisa Gee --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Product Description
Witty and playful, this novel sees the return of some of Barbara Trapido's best-loved characters from "Brother of the Famous Jack" and "Juggling".

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Customer Reviews

18 Reviews
5 star:
 (12)
4 star:
 (4)
3 star:    (0)
2 star:
 (1)
1 star:
 (1)
 
 
 
 
 
Average Customer Review
4.4 out of 5 stars (18 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

 
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars Best Read of the Year, 4 Jan 2005
By A Customer
Having previously read Frankie and Stankie by Barbara Trapido, I was looking forward to reading this book. It did not disappoint - in fact it was even better than Frankie and Stankie - the narrative descriptions are evocative and the characters come to life almost immediately.

The novel made me laugh out loud and even the sad moments are hauntingly funny which make them all the more poignant.

The characters are unique and not like you or I (I hope!) and yet somehow Trapido has the gift of being able to make her readers connect and emphasise with her characters.

My only slight disappointment was the ending for Stella, which I could not really understand but maybe I still have to transcend to a higher plane!

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4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars absorbing novel well worth the read, 10 Jun 2002
By A Customer
I was recommended to Baraba Trapido and all I can say is that I too would recommend her to you. This book was excellent, I was totally absorbed in the characters and the story that unfolded. I am now ordering more of her books...I am hooked.
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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars Extremely clever and well written - definately worth reading, 22 Mar 2002
By A Customer
I thoroughly enjoyed this book from start to finish. The only disappointment was at the end, when I knew that I would no longer be following the lives of such wonderful, challenging, thought provoking characters. I found myself swapping "sides" and empathising with one character after another, and was delighted by the finale. The skill of Barbara Trapido is unprecedented. This book is a must-read.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews

4.0 out of 5 stars Love and Loss!
The protagonists of this novel are Ellen, Jonathan and Stella whose lives and those of family friends and lovers become intertwined by coincidence upon coincidence. Read more
Published 16 months ago by LindyLouMac

2.0 out of 5 stars Starts off well, but gets steadily more irritating
This is the first novel I have read of Barbara Trapido, and while I found the first few chapters very interesting and amusing -to the point of laughing out loud on the train - I... Read more
Published on 22 May 2005 by alimarcam

4.0 out of 5 stars Good, in a different kind of way
This book, by Barbara Trapido, is one of a bag full of books I picked up a few months ago from library booksale. Read more
Published on 30 Nov 2004 by Ms. Clair E. Mcmullen

1.0 out of 5 stars Pure rubbish
I personally found this book highly disapointing. Some of the characters struck me as utterly bland, the ending was nothing but a pure farce and the characters were unbelievable... Read more
Published on 27 April 2002

5.0 out of 5 stars Just read it for yourself!
Brilliant, brilliant. It's not often that a work of fiction can keep me pondering for days and days after I've turned the final page. Read more
Published on 4 Aug 2001

5.0 out of 5 stars I didnt want this one to end
This was the first of Trapido's books I have read and I am now ordering all of the others. I flew through this book and was disappointed that I had finished it - I really wanted... Read more
Published on 25 May 2001

5.0 out of 5 stars Couldn't put it down!
I recently bought three books to read and The Travelling HornPlayer was for some reason the third I read, I am glad too because afer reading it the other two pale into... Read more
Published on 18 Sep 2000 by 58413995@mmu.ac.uk

5.0 out of 5 stars Unmissable for Trapido fans
The complex characters in this novel all mesh together seemlessly into the well structured tragedy. It was very enjoyable having read the 'Brother of the more Famous Jack', to see... Read more
Published on 12 Aug 2000 by laurabentley

5.0 out of 5 stars Exquisite prose!
The plot is improbable, and the conclusion, if you think about it, unsatisfying and depressing. But Barbara Trapido is such an excellent writer that one comes out from the reading... Read more
Published on 24 Jul 2000

5.0 out of 5 stars compelling reading
I couldn't put this book down and the minute I finished it I ran to the computer to order all her other books (which I'm now happily devouring. Read more
Published on 4 May 2000 by Kirsty Hall

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