The Trial of Katterfelto

A dazzling novel of science, reason, and wonder from Man Booker–longlisted author

A true and faithful account of the trial and punishment of the esteemed Dr Gustavus Katterfelto, the greatest natural philosopher who ever lived.

In the last jittery years of the eighteenth century, England is hungry for marvels. In rides Doctor Gustavus Katterfelto, a celebrity conjurer who once performed for Kings and now lives by his wits, with his battered stage gear and his black cat Cleo.

He is joined by Roger Gossage, a young Moroccan Jew stranded in Britain. When a river accident leaves Katterfelto injured and Roger combing the Severn for lost property, he finds a dented silver horn, cold as a grave coin. When breathed into, it answers with a woman’s voice - she speaks of far-off cities, strange machines and in riddles, and soon “the Oracle of Clevelode” is the sensation of the Midlands. Crowds pack Duvernet’s theatre and fields at dusk. Doom-preachers chant her phrases. Rival magicians and zealots circle. But then a shadowy Constable of the Night sets a trap.

As hysteria rises, Roger begins to suspect the horn is not a trick at all. In Nottingham a scientific committee is formed to test the oracle. What begins as theatre becomes obsession, and ends in a public trial for “pretending to sorcery”, with Roger fighting to save Katterfelto and the voice inside the horn.

Told as a breathless 'true account', The Trial of Katterfelto is a darkly comic historical fever dream about spectacle, belief, and the price of hearing the future.

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