Maria Dahvana Headley, whose Mere Wife and new translation of Beowulf have electrified readers (and listeners) on a teenage inspiration: “I happened upon The Hearing Trumpet by Leonora Carrington, who was a surrealist painter and writer. … I didn’t really know anything about surrealists then. The novel is full of wild characters that are very elderly women. It’s also filthy and funny. It’s exactly what you want to read as a teenage girl, but it’s about women in their 90s.” – Boston Globe
