A friend in Seattle passed this book on to me, and I read it on the way home. It is a fairly straightforward story, really. Yet, there was something about the characters that has stuck with me. It is really a story about the connections between people who have never even met--and for that reason it seemed an appropriate first book to "release" from my collection. For another story about people "not meeting" try "The Republic of Love" by Carol Shields, a book I would recommend more highly than this one.

My thanks to Emilie and to BookCrossing for several lovely, leisurely summer evenings with The Travelling Hornplayer, which has now fully traversed the continent and crossed an international boundary. I found it in the muddled book bin at Frenchy's in Amherst, Nova Scotia. (Frenchy's is an addictive Maritime used-clothing chain that gathers most of its stock from the US eastern seaboard.) Contrary to the spirit of BookCrossing, I did have to pay for the book--Cdn$0.75--but it was well worth it! I've long been intrigued by the one-story-several-voices device, and Trapido's story is a memorable addition to my personal collection of texts that use this technique. Tomorrow I will pass the book on (at no charge) to a friend, so its journey will continue . . .