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 M
arian Leatherby overhears when she is given an ornate hearing trumpet is her fam
ily plotting to commit her to an institution. Soon, she finds herself trapped in
a sinister retirement home, where the elderly must inhabit buildings shaped lik
e igloos and birthday cakes, endure twisted religious preaching and eat in a can
teen overlooked by the mysterious portrait of a leering Abbess.
