As tricky as a master composer, Trapido has taken us on a spiritual journey right through the dark forest of lost friendships and broken hearts, out into the sunshine of renewal

LOS ANGELES TIMES

Trapido is standing in for Miss Spark, who is on sabbatical in Italy

FINANCIAL TIMES

Barbara Trapido applies her sharp sense of social nuances and her dry wit to advance the proposition that love conquers all. [With] a light, sure touch ... she manages to make the improbable surprisingly possible

WALL STREET JOURNAL

Temples of Delight is so readable, so full of incidental pleasures and curiosities, that one could easily overlook its terrifying honesty … In her readability, her richness, her plain, clear style, Trapido is quite like what Iris Murdoch is supposed to be

PHILIP HENSHER, GUARDIAN

Her characters are larger than life ... Temples of Delight shows how grief is implicit in joy. It makes you laugh and it moves you

SUNDAY TIMES

Like Trapido's celebrated first novel, Brother of the More Famous Jack, it is quirky, wise, and warm, full of charm and entirely original. More than a play on the Mozart opera, Temples of Delight is a sly comment on contrivance and serendipity, loss and gain. Wry and generous, it has a delightfully eccentric vision and ... is blessed with a delicious sense of the absurd

SAN FRANCISCO CHRONICLE