Vivaldi and the Number 3 - Tapa blanda

?It?s not often that composers inspire such funny surrealism. I enjoyed these very much.? Bernard MacLaverty ?Like his landmark The Sound of my Voice, Ron Butlin?s Night Visits creates a displaced world of jeopardy and emotional damage? Alan Warner ?Spellbinding and compassionate? Independent ?Butlin is a successor to Kafka or Borges, two names that should be invoked whenever the necessity to save the short story may be questioned? Time Out ?For far too long, Butlin has been one of contemporary British literature?s best kept secrets? The Independent Magazine

In these playful vignettes, Ron Butlin looks at the lives of great composers and philosophers from unusual but always highly entertaining angles. Vivaldi?s creative block is freed with God?s gift of the number 3; Mozart struggles for financial independence by becoming Salzburg?s first private eye; Haydn?s publicity benefits from an appearance on Jerry Springer? Many previously undocumented events from the history of Western civilization are relayed here with a zany touch and a delicious sense of the absurd. When Seneca tests the validity of stoicism by taking up residence in 21st century Edinburgh, Ron Butlin brings these delightful tales to his home town.