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The secret that Millicent Moody, widow of jazz great Joss Moody, refers to may have been harmless in life, but when Joss dies and the truth is exposed, it ends up affecting more people than she ever imagined. It gives nothing away to reveal right off that Millicent's late husband was, in fact, a woman--something Millie has known all along but that the Moodys' adopted son, Colman, only discovers after his father's death. Titillating as the subject matter initially seems, in Jackie Kay's capable hands Joss's gender-bending becomes almost a side issue in a novel that is, at its heart, concerned with the essential nature of love.
Kay tells her story from many different perspectives--the doctor who signs the death certificate, the mortician who prepares the body, the opportunistic biographer looking to make a buck and a name for herself, the musicians who knew Joss--but it is Millicent and Colman who bear the brunt of both the pain and the responsibility for telling the tale. Millie Moody is a tremendously sympathetic character; her love for Joss is so powerful, so right that the reader never questions the decisions this odd couple made in life. "I didn't feel like I was living a lie," Millie tells us. "I felt like I was living a life." Colman, on the other hand, is more difficult to like. Though it's easy to understand his anger and confusion upon suddenly learning that the man he regarded as his father for 30 years was actually a woman, one also has the sneaking suspicion that he wasn't a particularly lovable guy before the revelation, either. Still, by the end of Trumpet, there's hope for Colman, peace of mind for Millie, and a satisfying rendering of love in all its permutations for the reader. --Alix Wilber
"It has a humanity and sympathy which engaged me from start to finish. And its energy and directness made it a treat to read. . . .Her book [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
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Book Description paperback. Condition: New. Language: ENG. Seller Inventory # 9781447289494
Book Description Paperback. Condition: new. Paperback. WINNER OF THE GUARDIAN FICTION PRIZEWith an introduction by Ali Smith.When the love of your life dies, the problem is not that some part of you dies too, which it does, but that some part of you is still alive.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.Winner of the Guardian Fiction Prize, Trumpet is a starkly beautiful modern classic about the lengths to which people will go for love. It 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.PRAISE FOR TRUMPET"Recounted in clear, spare, utterly unsentimental prose . . . the voices in this tender, compassionate work were still singing in my head a couple of weeks after I'd finished it" Observer".the beauty of this book is the way its love, the character and story around which all the others orbit, is kept so intriguingly in the shadows, so fantastically out of view" Literary Review A modern classic of enduring love, winner of the Guardian Fiction Prize. Shipping may be from multiple locations in the US or from the UK, depending on stock availability. Seller Inventory # 9781447289494
Book Description Soft Cover. Condition: new. Seller Inventory # 9781447289494
Book Description Paperback. Condition: Brand New. 288 pages. In Stock. Seller Inventory # __1447289498
Book Description Paperback. Condition: New. BRAND NEW ** SUPER FAST SHIPPING FROM UK WAREHOUSE ** 30 DAY MONEY BACK GUARANTEE. Seller Inventory # 9781447289494-GDR
Book Description Paperback / softback. Condition: New. This item is printed on demand. New copy - Usually dispatched within 5-9 working days. Seller Inventory # C9781447289494
Book Description Condition: New. Series: Picador Classic. Num Pages: 288 pages. BIC Classification: FA. Category: (G) General (US: Trade). Dimension: 197 x 130. . . 2016. Main Market Ed. Paperback. . . . . Seller Inventory # V9781447289494