SEX & STRAVINSKY BY BARBARA TRAPIDO, BLOOMSBURY, $32.99.
This is Barbara Trapido’s seventh novel and a glorious read it is, with a cast of fabulously flawed characters, whose lives cross and re-cross over decades and continents as they chase their dreams, pick the wrong partners, madden their children, suffer the tyranny of monstrous parents, yet somehow emerge from the other side wiser and happier – though not at all better – people.
Trapido fans will recognise the ingredients, but this is one of her best. The novel focuses on two mismatched couples, each with discontented daughters. The link between them is a changeling called Jack, a pale-skinned boy born to a black maid, who coolly seizes every opportunity that comes his way. He gives steel to the story and a bittersweet tang to this funny, wise book.
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