‘A disturbing, dark novel and an auspicious debut.’ - Brian Moore ‘The obsessive love of one brother for another makes absorbing reading. The picture of the selfish cold father is very convincing, I found the unwitting betrayal of the father by the despised son most moving. There are fine descriptions throughout.’ - James Purdy

‘Extraordinarily tightly plotted, well - and in places, brilliantly - written, and concerned with issues of major human importance.’ - British Book News

‘A real talent for describing places, and an admirable restraint which gives his writing tautness. The book is fired by sincerity … the writing is admirable.’ - Books and Bookmen

‘A carefully husbanded talent with skill and sensitivity … drawn with arresting acidity … vividly evoked.’ - Jonathan Keates, Observer

Dan Varney, in Madrid for a conference, goes in search of a night of adventure to help take his mind off the terrible events of one year earlier, when an act of betrayal left his father dead and his beloved brother James in an institution. The unexpected sound of a harmonica playing one of James’s favourite tunes draws Dan to Kevin, a handsome English youth with a dark secret and a connection to Dan’s own past. Dan and Kevin feel not only attraction but sympathy, but when Dan learns of Kevin’s role in the mysterious tragedy that struck the Varney family, could any kind of relationship survive? This new edition of Paul Binding’s Harmonica’s Bridegroom coincides with the 30th anniversary of the novel’s original publication and features a new afterword by the author.