Trumpet

Jackie Kay Press Reviews

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 book's style works like a jazz riff, a literary improvisation of the central melody of Joss's death - Independent on Sunday

In an accomplished display of vocal versatility, Kay shifts effortlessly between the voices of Millie, Colman and Sophie Stones, an avaricious journalist who offers to help Colman avenge himself by ghostwriting a bare-all biography . . . 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

Kay's powerful rendition of everyday speech combines perfectly with the themes and construction of her story - Independent on Sunday

From the angry and disbelieving voice of the son Colman, whose hurt and alienation can only find expression through the cliches of tabloid expose, to Millie's personal elegy for her husband, Jackie Kay's ear for the poetry as well as for the rudeness of everyday speech is as powerful as ever - Times Literary Supplement

Kay carefully registers the technical difficulties of transgendered life (breast binding, marriage certificates, death certificates) without sensationalizing them, and beautifully evokes both Millie's and Colman's grief. She leaves us with a broad landscape of sweet tolerance and familial love, wondering how it felt to be Joss Moody - New York Times Book Review

Kay is a writer to respect . . . The qualities of sympathy and tenderness in this novel make it special - Guardian

A rich, taut and compelling novel by a fine writer. A Picador classic -- Melvyn Bragg - Guardian

A novel whose humanism, humour and vision demolish anyone's urge to think they've got the right to decide about, categorize or dismiss other human beings -- Ali Smith - New York Times