Product Description

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #229001 in Books
• Published on: 2009-06-19
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 336 pages

Features

• ISBN13: 9781847671929
• Condition: NEW
• Notes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark.
• Click here to view our Condition Guide and Shipping Prices

From Publishers Weekly
Twelve-year-old Gwenni Morgan bears witness as her family crumbles under the weight of its secrets in Strachan's lyrical debut. In a small Welsh village swirling with secrets and gossip, few are willing to tell the truth about who they are. Gwenni soars above the local intrigue in her dreams—each night as she drifts off to sleep she flies away from her family and over the nearby fields and farms—and hopes someday to fly during the day as well. Though most, including her mother, see Gwenni's unending curiosity as a nuisance, local schoolteacher Elin Evans nurtures Gwenni's dreams of a different life. When Elin's husband, Ifan, disappears, town tongues wag, and when his body is found, Gwenni's mother mourns him more than seems proper. Strachan ramps up the tension, as Gwenni is caught between loyalties and learns some damning family secrets. The author's light touch keeps the story unfamiliar and surprising, while Gwenni's über-precocious narration revels in a love for language and reveals an unspoiled innocence about the world. It's small, quiet and nicely done. (June)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From Booklist
Every night in her dreams, Gwenni flies high above her Welsh village, looking at the lives unfolding beneath her and hearing the earth’s melodic hum. The sky is her sanctuary until one night the 12-year-old sees something puzzling and deeply disturbing. The very next day Ifan Evans, the chapel deacon and husband of Gwenni’s teacher, mysteriously goes missing. Intrigued, Gwenni decides to turn detective and determine the man’s whereabouts. What she finds, instead, is that mystery begins at home in her and every other family’s closely held and jealously guarded secrets, which, when revealed, can change lives forever. Set sometime in the 1950s, this first novel by a sixtysomething Welsh librarian is a beautifully realized debut. Strachan is especially good at infusing her material with a sense of magic that is rooted in ambiguity, and at capturing the sensibility of a small town where all lives are interconnected, for good or ill. The story takes a perhaps needlessly melodramatic turn near its end but is otherwise filled with lovely moments and insights. --Michael Cart

Review
'The Earth Hums in B Flat is a richly evocative, warm but unsentimental tale of a child detective struggling to piece together clues about the lives around her. These lives, and the characters who live them, are so vividly drawn and Mari Strachan's careful unraveling of the secrets they hide is extremely compelling. I loved this novel.' Catherine O'Flynn, author of What Was Lost

Customer Reviews

Endearing and enduring; a gem of a novel
Mari Strachan's début novel, "The Earth Hums in B Flat" is a deceptively dark tale of the charmingly naive Gwenni, an 12-and-a-half-year old growing up in north Wales in the early 1950s, with her quiet, implacable Tada; neurotic Mam; and a slightly older sister, Bethan, who has that somewhat supercilious sense of superiority that slightly older sisters so often have. The book is beautifully written, redolent of a time that is long gone but which yet remains within the memory of many of us; a time before today's modern domestic conveniences, when people still cooked and boiled kettles on the open range in the living room, kitchen walls were painted with flaking distemper and Toby jugs watched young children's every move from high shelves. And a time when everybody knew everybody else and their business, and yet nobody ever spoke of or admitted to any of it, and every family held secrets known to all (except often the family members themselves).

Mari Strachan's writing evokes that time perfectly, often with merely the subtlest of phrase or passing mention of some small detail or other. Gwenni is an absolute gem, naive and gauche, for all her intelligence, and with an imagination and wisdom that far outstrips her knowledge and experience. She sharply observes all around her, but understands little of the darker ways of the world and how the seemingly innocent things she picks up can connect in often far-reaching and damaging ways. Comic and dark by turns, this book is engrossing and engaging from beginning to end.

It is also beautifully paced, although I felt Mari Strachan does rush things just a tad towards the end, although this in no way detracts from the book's overall excellence. This is a book that can be read and reread, and savoured repeatedly for its simple effectiveness; a book that makes you laugh and cry by turn, over and over again. Heartily recommended.

Terrific, engaging book.
This book is one of those rare finds.... a book that is beautifully written, emotionally charged and entertaining. While the book is written from the perspective of a twelve year old girl, this is by no means a simple young adult story. The narrator's age allows for a very interesting look at the complex, multilayered dynamic between the family at the center of the story and the community in which they live. This is a book that you will be sorry to see end!

A down to earth novel of personal flight
When our heroine needs to "escape" her crazy family she take flight over her village and the neighboring countryside. This affords her not only a birds eye view but a way to clear her mind of all the abuse and unnecesary details that clutter her life. I really enjoyed the language of this novel, the flow of it, the relationships and the story which unravels as a wonderful mystery though you are likely to figure the plot from the beginning. I was surprised that this fact takes nothing away from the story. Delightful read and an amazing story of growing up and human frailty that we call family. As a child that fancied herself a bit of a detective, I highly recommend this wonderful story.