Edmond Music, Catholic priest and director of Beale Hall research institute, has a secret: he doesn't believe in God. And that's not all. For the past forty years he has shared a bed with his housekeeper, Maude Moriarty from Donegal. In fact Edmond Music isn't even Edmond Music. He's Edmond Music, French child of Hungarian parents - and a Jew.

As he sees out his days in his Shropshire mansion, devoting his time to kabbalistic studies, his buried pasts threaten to end the charade. Fred Twombly, professor of English from Joliet, Illinois, and half-century-long enemy, has arrived, determined to destroy him. What may be Shakespeare's lost masterpiece has disappeared from the Hall's famous library. Edmond must be to blame.

'Alan Isler is brilliant... The wit is sumptuous and sophisticated, the timing and pace perfect' - Daily Telegraph

About the Author
Alan Isler was born in England in 1934, emigrating to the US at the age of 18. After serving in the US army he went on to study literature at Columbia University, and taught for much of his adult life. Isler was the author of several novels including Kraven Images, The Bacon Fancier, Clerical Errors, The Living Proof and The Prince of West End Avenue, which won the National Jewish Book Award in 1994. Isler died in 2010. .

Reviews
A delightful mix of both wit and profundity. The combination of rich vocabulary, a decent plot, and Isler's unnerving ability to assume the identity of his characters can't help but result in a novel you'll wish was longer! * Time Out *
Alan Isler, as usual, manages to combine almost Wodehousian comedy with painful, unsentimental tragedy * Sunday Times *
A superb new comic novel... wildly funny... Like the stories of Malamud and Singer one senses that the true hero of Clerical Errors is the story itself * Independent on Sunday *
Terrifically funny. Isler has once again come up with a winning voice for his narrator, by turns witty, bawdy and lugubrious * Financial Times *
A rich, rambunctious novel * The Times *
Through Father Music's rambling all-embracing voice, Isler gives us one of the funniest, most moving novels of faith, love and loss in years * Red *



Book Information
ISBN 9780099285854
Author Alan Isler
Format Paperback
Page Count 288
Imprint Vintage
Publisher Vintage Publishing
Weight(grams) 205g
Dimensions(mm) 198mm * 129mm * 18mm