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The Trial of Katterfelto
A Globe and Mail Best Book of 2025
“I will grant here at the outset that the Doctor was not who he seemed, but this shall turn out to be of little import in the tale to come. He is, as am I, but a charge in a wire. We were conductors for another force, vassals to a vessel. This vessel I cannot speak of for some pages however central it will become, but I gallop ahead of myself. . . . I believe it is important that you see how I came to meet the good Doctor, and for you to meet us for who we were. Perhaps you will marvel, as have I, at how chance encounters can be charged with the power to alter the course of one’s life, or even history.”
In the late-eighteenth century, the conjurer and amateur scientist Gustavus Katterfelto has made a name for himself travelling across the English countryside with a bag of tricks. For audiences, his astonishing stunts are pure magic. For Katterfelto, each one is carefully engineered and executed with the help of his colleague, confidante and amanuensis, and our narrator, Roger Gossage.
Yet one day in their travels, the two men come across a mystifying object beyond their a metal horn that emits a disembodied woman’s voice. She calls herself Siri of Toronto, and claims to speak from a place plagued by climate catastrophe and social unrest. As they begin to use the horn in their magic shows, Gossage and Katterfelto must work to understand the origin and intent of Siri’s call—a quest that will put them up against the limits of reason and test Roger’s allegiance to the man he calls his friend.
Endlessly inventive, richly imagined, and entirely its own, The Trial of Katterfelto is a consciousness-expanding novel that writes directly into the most urgent questions we face as a who we are, what we have done, and what we might do from here.
“I will grant here at the outset that the Doctor was not who he seemed, but this shall turn out to be of little import in the tale to come. He is, as am I, but a charge in a wire. We were conductors for another force, vassals to a vessel. This vessel I cannot speak of for some pages however central it will become, but I gallop ahead of myself. . . . I believe it is important that you see how I came to meet the good Doctor, and for you to meet us for who we were. Perhaps you will marvel, as have I, at how chance encounters can be charged with the power to alter the course of one’s life, or even history.”
In the late-eighteenth century, the conjurer and amateur scientist Gustavus Katterfelto has made a name for himself travelling across the English countryside with a bag of tricks. For audiences, his astonishing stunts are pure magic. For Katterfelto, each one is carefully engineered and executed with the help of his colleague, confidante and amanuensis, and our narrator, Roger Gossage.
Yet one day in their travels, the two men come across a mystifying object beyond their a metal horn that emits a disembodied woman’s voice. She calls herself Siri of Toronto, and claims to speak from a place plagued by climate catastrophe and social unrest. As they begin to use the horn in their magic shows, Gossage and Katterfelto must work to understand the origin and intent of Siri’s call—a quest that will put them up against the limits of reason and test Roger’s allegiance to the man he calls his friend.
Endlessly inventive, richly imagined, and entirely its own, The Trial of Katterfelto is a consciousness-expanding novel that writes directly into the most urgent questions we face as a who we are, what we have done, and what we might do from here.
324 pages, Kindle Edition
Published September 2, 2025
11 people are currently reading
264 people want to read
About the author
Michael Redhill
33 books169 followersAka Inger Ash Wolfe.
Michael Redhill is an American-born Canadian poet, playwright and novelist.
Born in Baltimore, Maryland, Redhill was raised in the metropolitan Toronto, Ontario area. He pursued one year of study at Indiana University, and then returned to Canada, completing his education at York University and the University of Toronto. He was on the editorial board of Coach House Press from 1993 to 1996, and is currently the publisher and editor of the Canadian literary magazine Brick.
His play, Building Jerusalem, depicts a meeting between Karl Pearson, Augusta Stowe-Gullen, Adelaide Hoodless, and Silas Tertius Rand on New Year's Eve night just prior to the 20th century.
Michael Redhill is an American-born Canadian poet, playwright and novelist.
Born in Baltimore, Maryland, Redhill was raised in the metropolitan Toronto, Ontario area. He pursued one year of study at Indiana University, and then returned to Canada, completing his education at York University and the University of Toronto. He was on the editorial board of Coach House Press from 1993 to 1996, and is currently the publisher and editor of the Canadian literary magazine Brick.
His play, Building Jerusalem, depicts a meeting between Karl Pearson, Augusta Stowe-Gullen, Adelaide Hoodless, and Silas Tertius Rand on New Year's Eve night just prior to the 20th century.
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Displaying 1 - 17 of 17 reviews
October 5, 2025
This book is quite the journey! It felt like historical fiction meets fantasy meets biography. I found it entertaining throughout, and was captivated the message that evolves. Absolutely in awe of the creativity that it took to bring the story to such life.
November 11, 2025
Really well-written, though also in the category of ‘sort of a slog until it all comes together and then it is amazing.’
Detailed historical narrative + inventive surreal speculation. At the same time.
Detailed historical narrative + inventive surreal speculation. At the same time.
February 14, 2026
The conceit is brilliant. It starts about a third of the way through, allowing time to build attachment to the two main characters, to establish them in a certain light, get invested in their fates. Then suddenly the story connects to another time and place, closer to our own, far more devastating. There were warnings all along about the ill fate of our species. They have recently grown louder, starker, yet we still fail to listen, as if we remain in the early phases of the “age of enlightenment.” Theme aside, an engrossing tale of wonder, hucksterism, poverty, corruption, and loyalty.
January 27, 2026
A travelling magician/amateur scientist Gustavus Katterfelto performs amazing tricks that to his audience appear to be actual magic. These tricks are actually carefully planned and require the help of an assistant, Roger Gossage, who is the narrator of this odd tale, which is delivered as a series of letters to Samuel Taylor Coleridge.
While this novel falls within the bounds of a fantasy story, it has many real historical details. Katterfelto travels about the English countryside, giving performances, while Roger arranges things for him. They are barely making a living, but one day, Katterfelto finds an odd object, which the two men call a horn, based on its appearance. Katterfelto has bled on the object, but finds the thing intriguing enough that he decides to use this in his performances.
But the first time he tries, shockingly loud static and a woman's voice emerges. She says a variety of bizarre things, things that a modern listener would find familiar or at least plausible or possible (e.g., AI, flooded cities, dead children, parallel universes…) She calls herself Siri, and Katterfelto is shocked but continues to see possibilities for his act, but Gossage much less so, despite the amount of money they receive, and the ensuing fame.
Gossage is a man who has his own issues, a Moroccan Jew in a land that does not respect him, and an alcoholic. He logs the many oddities Siri reveals, and convinces Katterfelto to consult with learned people of the time, such as Samuel Taylor Coleridge. He manages to bring a small group together, and they listen to Siri's words (which only Katterfelto can coax from the horn) and speculate as to the meaning and implications for them, their country and their world.
Though they never crack the meaning behind Siri's words, I was amused and entranced by author Michael Redhill's story, which encompasses the times and mores of the late 1700s and early 1800s, but also posits that the world will be in dire straits in a few centuries, and terrible things will happen, both man-made and not, in the future that Siri describes for this group of relatively enlightened people.
In the end, it's decided that something will have to be done to warn the future, and Gossage travels to Canada, and also hopes that Coleridge can get what the group has transcribed from Siri into a manuscript to a publisher so the world can be on alert.
It's funny, and a little chilling and sad to read the final letter, set in 1834, and preserved by Roger's son Nelson with the rest of the manuscript. The letter shows that things haven't proceeded as Roger hoped.
This is both a sign that Siri's warnings of a dying world could come to pass, or maybe not? And maybe someone found the manuscript later, after the Gossages passed on…..
This was such a strange novel. I enjoyed it a lot, with its beautifully constructed prose and epistolary format. But I also constantly felt off balance by this tale, with its inclusions of real people and happenings, its hapless pair of Katterfelto and Gossage, the wry tone, and the horrible future Siri is begging for people to listen to and to try and stop. The tone of the book, its fantastic elements, as well as being conveyed by letters, will be a challenge. It's weird, but in a good way.
Thank you to Netgalley and to Penguin Random House Canada (Adult) for this ARC in exchange for my review.
While this novel falls within the bounds of a fantasy story, it has many real historical details. Katterfelto travels about the English countryside, giving performances, while Roger arranges things for him. They are barely making a living, but one day, Katterfelto finds an odd object, which the two men call a horn, based on its appearance. Katterfelto has bled on the object, but finds the thing intriguing enough that he decides to use this in his performances.
But the first time he tries, shockingly loud static and a woman's voice emerges. She says a variety of bizarre things, things that a modern listener would find familiar or at least plausible or possible (e.g., AI, flooded cities, dead children, parallel universes…) She calls herself Siri, and Katterfelto is shocked but continues to see possibilities for his act, but Gossage much less so, despite the amount of money they receive, and the ensuing fame.
Gossage is a man who has his own issues, a Moroccan Jew in a land that does not respect him, and an alcoholic. He logs the many oddities Siri reveals, and convinces Katterfelto to consult with learned people of the time, such as Samuel Taylor Coleridge. He manages to bring a small group together, and they listen to Siri's words (which only Katterfelto can coax from the horn) and speculate as to the meaning and implications for them, their country and their world.
Though they never crack the meaning behind Siri's words, I was amused and entranced by author Michael Redhill's story, which encompasses the times and mores of the late 1700s and early 1800s, but also posits that the world will be in dire straits in a few centuries, and terrible things will happen, both man-made and not, in the future that Siri describes for this group of relatively enlightened people.
In the end, it's decided that something will have to be done to warn the future, and Gossage travels to Canada, and also hopes that Coleridge can get what the group has transcribed from Siri into a manuscript to a publisher so the world can be on alert.
It's funny, and a little chilling and sad to read the final letter, set in 1834, and preserved by Roger's son Nelson with the rest of the manuscript. The letter shows that things haven't proceeded as Roger hoped.
This is both a sign that Siri's warnings of a dying world could come to pass, or maybe not? And maybe someone found the manuscript later, after the Gossages passed on…..
This was such a strange novel. I enjoyed it a lot, with its beautifully constructed prose and epistolary format. But I also constantly felt off balance by this tale, with its inclusions of real people and happenings, its hapless pair of Katterfelto and Gossage, the wry tone, and the horrible future Siri is begging for people to listen to and to try and stop. The tone of the book, its fantastic elements, as well as being conveyed by letters, will be a challenge. It's weird, but in a good way.
Thank you to Netgalley and to Penguin Random House Canada (Adult) for this ARC in exchange for my review.
October 12, 2025
Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for an advance copy of this book.
It was a book that I looked forward to, as the title and description had me hooked right from the beginning.
It is described as a conscience-expanding book. I would agree with that in totality.
This book considered what we know, what we believe and we think we will know in the future. It is well written, easy to follow and interesting.
I loved the way that the book was a commentary of the world we live in now.
I thought the writing was solid, and the book was really unique.
It was a book that I looked forward to, as the title and description had me hooked right from the beginning.
It is described as a conscience-expanding book. I would agree with that in totality.
This book considered what we know, what we believe and we think we will know in the future. It is well written, easy to follow and interesting.
I loved the way that the book was a commentary of the world we live in now.
I thought the writing was solid, and the book was really unique.
October 9, 2025
This is speculative fiction, which I enjoy. The plot and characters pull you into the story, and if you can accept that there has been a break in the space-time continuum (a stretch for me, but I did go there) this is a compelling book. A feeling of mystery and wonder comes through. The past era the novel is set in comes alive as does the near and very frightening future. I hope the future depicted is not 'the' future. This novel is full of ideas and yet very human. Lengthy, worth reading.
Read
February 7, 2026I'm eating my words now. After "Bellevue Square" I vowed not to continue reading Redhill's "triptych" of "Modern Ghosts." I didn't realize until I finished reading it, but "The Trial of Katterfelto" is the second in that series. Thank goodness I didn't know, because this was an amazingly good read.
See my review, soon to be posted on Canadian Writers Abroad."
See my review, soon to be posted on Canadian Writers Abroad."
February 17, 2026
This was definitely an enjoyable read, even if the balance between the historical and contemporary elements was a bit uneven at times. As an eighteenth-century scholar, I appreciated the references to literary figures from the time! Katterfelto himself seems like quite the interesting character and this book has made me curious to learn more about him.
February 15, 2026
The Trial of Katterfelto or The only true account of the Trail and tragic fate of Doctor Gustavus Katterfelto conjurer to royalty and the greatest natural philosopher who ever lived by his confederate and friend Roger Gossage, is an epistolary novel set in the eighteenth century, consisting of letters written by Roger Gossage, an alcoholic, who often reiterates that his story is “entirely true”.
As a work of speculative historical fiction with elements of fantasy, a surprisingly large amount is historically accurate. The titular Gustavus Katterfelto, was a real person who was roadside magician and is sometimes credited with inventing germ theory.
In the novel, Gossage and Katterfelto are travelling the idyllic English countryside when Katterfelto cuts his foot on a metal shard. Gossage finds the rest of the object: a disk with crimped edges, which he restores to something like a horn. It’s this horn that changes the trajectory of their lives.
During the following performance, Katterfelto attempts to use the horn to amplify his voice. He brings the horn to his lips and, after a roar of what the reader understands to be radio static but those watching Katterfelto experience as a hellishly loud noise, a woman’s voice emerges. She speaks in English — though with an accent that no one has heard before — and her words are as bewildering as they are cautionary. Siri from Toronto, as she calls herself, speaks of transmission layers, parallel universes, dead children in flooded cities, AI, mind viruses, and current political figures.
From here on out The Trial of Katterfelto embodies the “impossible possibilities” of time travel. Siri speaks of a future that is already realized. But this doesn’t stop Gossage and Katterfelto from sharing her prophesies in the hopes of preventing the future that Siri lives in. Along the way they gather a band of intellectuals who try to determine who and what Siri is (along with dodging Siri cultists and violent disbelievers), and we find out why Gossage was writing his letters– the hope of printing the story to warn the world of the future Siri inhabits.
The Arthur C. Clarke’s quote that “any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic” is literalized in this novel. How the horn ended up in the 18th century is never explained. It requires a blood sacrifice, Katterfelto cutting his foot on it and later Gossage also cutting himself, to make the horn work and Siri speak. There is a hilarious moment with maps where the intellectual group tries to figure out where Toronto, spelled Taronto, is. First assuming Siri is trying to say a place in Italy. Until it’s realized that it’s from the Wyandot and she means what was then Fort Toronto, renamed to York during the time the novel is set.
In the end, Gossage’s account is never published (until now – perhaps as a family heirloom passed down until it ended up in Michael Redhill’s hands). Gossage doesn’t succeed and the future Siri describes is inevitable. Redhill’s point though is that throughout the novel Gossage acts like he can prevent the future, and so should we.
As a work of speculative historical fiction with elements of fantasy, a surprisingly large amount is historically accurate. The titular Gustavus Katterfelto, was a real person who was roadside magician and is sometimes credited with inventing germ theory.
In the novel, Gossage and Katterfelto are travelling the idyllic English countryside when Katterfelto cuts his foot on a metal shard. Gossage finds the rest of the object: a disk with crimped edges, which he restores to something like a horn. It’s this horn that changes the trajectory of their lives.
During the following performance, Katterfelto attempts to use the horn to amplify his voice. He brings the horn to his lips and, after a roar of what the reader understands to be radio static but those watching Katterfelto experience as a hellishly loud noise, a woman’s voice emerges. She speaks in English — though with an accent that no one has heard before — and her words are as bewildering as they are cautionary. Siri from Toronto, as she calls herself, speaks of transmission layers, parallel universes, dead children in flooded cities, AI, mind viruses, and current political figures.
From here on out The Trial of Katterfelto embodies the “impossible possibilities” of time travel. Siri speaks of a future that is already realized. But this doesn’t stop Gossage and Katterfelto from sharing her prophesies in the hopes of preventing the future that Siri lives in. Along the way they gather a band of intellectuals who try to determine who and what Siri is (along with dodging Siri cultists and violent disbelievers), and we find out why Gossage was writing his letters– the hope of printing the story to warn the world of the future Siri inhabits.
The Arthur C. Clarke’s quote that “any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic” is literalized in this novel. How the horn ended up in the 18th century is never explained. It requires a blood sacrifice, Katterfelto cutting his foot on it and later Gossage also cutting himself, to make the horn work and Siri speak. There is a hilarious moment with maps where the intellectual group tries to figure out where Toronto, spelled Taronto, is. First assuming Siri is trying to say a place in Italy. Until it’s realized that it’s from the Wyandot and she means what was then Fort Toronto, renamed to York during the time the novel is set.
In the end, Gossage’s account is never published (until now – perhaps as a family heirloom passed down until it ended up in Michael Redhill’s hands). Gossage doesn’t succeed and the future Siri describes is inevitable. Redhill’s point though is that throughout the novel Gossage acts like he can prevent the future, and so should we.
February 8, 2026
Entertaining read about a very quirky magician from the 18th Century. the magical realism made the story contemporary. There were parts that could have been tightened, maybe 50 pages worth, just to keep the story moving.
October 27, 2025
A cross-genre work with a a rather serious theme. Serious or not, both the characters and the tone of the work are delightful.
November 2, 2025
DNF, which is rare for me. I found it difficult to remain in the story, and even once I'd put in the time to get to the time bending portion, found it lacking to sufficiently keep my interest.
November 17, 2025
Enjoyable read
Want to read
December 10, 2025could not finish this one. I usually will persevere with a book, but just couldn't.
December 23, 2025
Loved it.
December 23, 2025
“They will think it a yarn in fashion of the cautionary tale. But cautionary of what? This is what I mean! We don’t know!”
An interesting tribute to Rime of the Ancient Mariner.
An interesting tribute to Rime of the Ancient Mariner.
January 10, 2026
Interesting world. Well written and good pacing. Well developed characters.
Displaying 1 - 17 of 17 reviews