Chapman's Odyssey

Harry Chapman is not well, and he doesn't like hospitals. Furthermore, Dr Pereira's wonder drug is causing some strange side effects: he can hear more than the usual quotient of voices. First, it is his mother, acerbic and disappointed in him as ever, but then more and more voices add their differing notes and stories to the chorus, squabbling, cajoling and commenting. Friends from childhood, lovers, characters from novels and poetry, Virginia Woolf and a man who wants to sell him T.S Eliot's teeth. Written with a gentle, effortless generosity, full of delicate observation, Chapman's Odyssey is the work of a master; a superbly rendered act of storytelling and ventriloquism that is both witty and deeply moving. If Fred Astaire had been a novelist he'd have been Paul Bailey. This beautiful, moving novel is a piece of dazzling footwork and reveals Bailey once more as one of the wittiest, most panacheful and most graceful writers we have. I love this beautiful book Ali Smith The warmest, funniest novel of the New Year Mail on Sunday A masterpiece ... With the loss in 2010 of Dame Beryl Bainbridge, the mantle of Greatest Living Novelist now rests firmly on Paul Bailey's shoulders Sunday Express A wonderfully elegant novel The Times Chapman's odyssey is an enigmatic work whose meaning is worth grasping for, the kind of book that could be construed as a deeply moving, valedictory statement of a valuable career- though it would probably prefer not to Guardian Compelling ... he delicately renders Harry's slips in and out of consciousness, almost imperceptibly eliding the real and the fantastic Independent on Sunday **** As Paul Bailey's novel progresses, his exploration of Harry's emotional life grows subtly more and more intense Daily Telegraph