Alteration

 Hubert Anvil is a 10 year old boy blessed with the voice of an angel. The Church hierarchy decrees that Hubert should be turned into a castrato - an alteration that could bring Hubert fame and fortune, but would also cut him off from an adult world he is curious to discover. In a dystopian world where Martin Luther never reformed and where the Holy Office's power is absolute, where will Hubert turn if he decides to defy their wishes?

Review: Kingsley Amis's coruscating tour de force... * The Economist *

Certain of his place up alongside P.G. Wodehouse, Evelyn Waugh and Anthony Powell among the English comic masters of the twentieth century. * Guardian *

The disorientating world of The Alteration is the same but different, familiar yet strange -- Laura Keynes * Tablet *