The countdown to the publication of THE BELLS is finally over next Tuesday, 9/14! This staff pick favorite is a must for your “to read” stacks, in fact, it should move to the top!
“Your heart will break for vulnerable Moses as he yearns for and struggles to find his place in the world, so have that tissue ready. The Bells is a sensual love story of the unlikely places family is to be found, with a cast of lively and endearing characters. The journey and direction of Moses’s life will haunt you through to the last page, which you hope will never come. My experience in reading The Bells was very similar to that of Sarah Dunant’s Sacred Hearts. Her novel sparked my brief, somewhat odd obsession with nuns and I sought further reading about young aristocratic girls forced into convents in Italy. With The Bells, I wanted to learn more about the castrati; those young boys in Italy victimized in order to preserve their voices. That is what I value most in historical fiction, to be so moved and engaged with obscure historical details that I yearn to learn more. ” – Erica
“One of the great pleasures of working in book publishing is getting to witness and be a part of the advance buzz that crops up pre-publication. It happened with The Passage and Cutting for Stone and now with Richard Harvell’s debut novel, The Bells. A few weeks ago Erica began raving about it so I decided to give it a go. Last week, I parked myself in her office every morning to discuss the pages I’d read the night before. This book is unlike any piece of historical fiction I’ve read before. Gone are the queens and other royal figures, the courtiers and painters. Moses, the son of a deaf-mute, grew up in a belfry before being cast out, found by two monks and taken to live in the Abbey of St. Gall where he sings in the choir. He is the one that no one wants with an operatic voice so in demand it becomes his curse. Gothic in tone with gorgeous language that has an ear for sound, this book will pull you into the landscape of the Swiss Alps, Mozart’s Vienna, and Moses’ world.” – Marie
