Listen to a sample
The Travelling Hornplayer
- Author
- Barbara Trapido
- Narrator
- Amy Noble
- Publisher
- Bloomsbury Publishing
- Publish Date
- 25 August 2026
- Run Time
- 11 hours 12 minutes
- Format
- Audiobook
What to expect
Stunning and difficult, Stella Goldman is programmed for maximum nuisance capacity, but when she discovers both her father’s affair and her boyfriend’s infidelity on the same day, she flees into the arms of kindly Pen, who speaks as though he’s stepped out of Brief Encounter.
Meanwhile, her friend Ellen struggles to come to terms with the death of her sister, Lydia, whose ghost haunts not only her and her father Roland, but the beloved Goldmans (from Brother of the More Famous Jack), too. Along with eccentric professors, wicked monks, and the titular travelling hornplayer, their lives collide in a breathtaking finale.
Critics Review
-
The brilliant [Trapido] . . . is one of the better-kept secrets of contemporary letters . . . [She] is a great novelist; sooner or later the whole reading world will know it.
San Francisco Chronicle
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Her fans might be forgiven for thinking this writer couldn’t get any better. She just has.
The Guardian
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Murdochian entertainment: a tragicomedy of errors. Trapido . . . races along with a kind of nervy glamour.
The New Yorker
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Witty . . . moving . . . clever, warm-hearted.
New York Times Book Review
User Reviews
No reviews yet.
Details
- Author
- Barbara Trapido
- Narrator
- Amy Noble
- Duration
- 11 hours 12 minutes
- Release Date
- 25 August 2026
- ISBN
- 9798260202890
- Format
- Audiobook
- Publisher
- Bloomsbury Publishing
- Genre
- Fiction: literary and general non-genre, Modern and contemporary fiction: literary and general
Synopsis
Bloomsbury presents The Travelling Hornplayer by Barbara Trapido, read by Amy Noble.Stunning and difficult, Stella Goldman is programmed for maximum nuisance capacity, but when she discovers both her father’s affair and her boyfriend’s infidelity on the same day, she flees into the arms of kindly Pen, who speaks as though he’s stepped out of Brief Encounter. Meanwhile, her friend Ellen struggles to come to terms with the death of her sister, Lydia, whose ghost haunts not only her and her father Roland, but the beloved Goldmans (from Brother of the More Famous Jack), too. Along with eccentric professors, wicked monks, and the titular travelling hornplayer, their lives collide in a breathtaking finale.
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