The Towers of Trebizond

Resumen del libro

A small miracle of a novel . . . Sensible without being complacent, contemporary as well as timeless. Charles Taylor, Salon

Hailed as an utter delight, the most brilliant witty and charming book I have read since I can't remember when by The New York Times when it was originally published in 1956, Rose Macaulay's The Towers of Trebizond tells the gleefully absurd story of Aunt Dot, Father Chantry-Pigg, Aunt Dot's deranged camel, and our narrator, Laurie, who are traveling from Istanbul to legendary Trebizond on a convoluted mission. Along the way they will encounter spies, a Greek sorcerer, a precocious ape, and Billy Graham with a busload of evangelists. Part travelogue, part comedy, it is also a meditation on love, faith, doubt, and the difficulties, moral and intellectual, of being a Christian in the modern world.

Dame Rose Macaulay, one of the most popular writers and personalities in England from the 1920s until her death in 1958, was a friend to the likes of E. M. Forster and Virginia Woolf. She was the author of more than thirty-five books; Towers of Trebizond is her masterpiece.

A work at once funny and sad, lighthearted and deeply felt, flippant and profound . . . for it contains passages that show a very thorough understanding of both love and faith, and of what happens when they come into conflict. Peter Parker, The New York Times (1992)

"Rose Macaulay's The Towers of Trebizond is an utter delight . . . Fantasy, farce, high comedy, lively travel material, delicious japes at many aspects of the frenzied modern world, and a succession of illuminating thoughts about love, sex, life, organized churches and religion are all tossed together with enchanting results." The New York Times (1956)

Biografía del autor

Rose Macaulay (1881-1958) va néixer a Rugby, en una família dx{0026} x02019;intelx{0026} x02022;lectuals i clergues anglicans. Va passar la major part de la infància a Varazze, una petita ciutat costanera dx{0026} x02019;Itàlia. El 1894 va tornar a Anglaterra, on, després dx{0026} x02019;estudiar història moderna a Oxford, va començar una carrera fulgurant com a escriptora i periodista. Viatgera incansable, va ser amiga de personatges com Virginia Woolf, E. M. Forster, Vita Sackville-West, Ivy Compton-Burnett i W. H. Auden. Autora prolífica que va abastar tots els gèneres, el 1956 va rebre el prestigiós James Tait Black Memorial Prize per "The Towers of Trebizond".