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The 2011 Award

 

Strachan

The Earth Hums in B Flat

by Mari Strachan

 

 

 

Nominated by:

  • Aberdeen Library & Information Services, Scotland

 

Publisher of Nominated Edition:

Canongate Books, UK.

 

The complete A-Z listing of nominated authors
ABOUT THE BOOK

 
‘Has our family got secrets?’ ‘Every family has, Gwenni. Big secrets, small secrets, silly secrets, bad things we want to hide . . . ’ Young Gwenni Morgan has a gift. She can fly in her sleep. She’s also fond of strawberry whip, detective stories and asking difficult questions. When a neighbour mysteriously vanishes, she resolves to uncover the secret of his disappearance and return him to his children. She truthfully records what she sees and hears: but are her deductions correct? What is the real truth? And what will be the consequences – for Gwenni, her family and her community – of finding it out? Gwenni Morgan is an unforgettable creation, and this portrait of life in a small Welsh town on the brink of change in the 1950s is enthralling, moving and utterly real. Mari Strachan’s debut is a magical novel that will transport you to another time and place. 

 (From Publisher).

 


 
ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Mari Strachan has been immersed in books all her life. She has worked as a librarian in academic, school, public, private and prison libraries. She has also been a book reviewer, researcher, translator, copy writer and web editor. She and her husband live part-time on a tiny smallholding in the hills of Ceredigion, West Wales, and part-time on a narrowboat on the Grand Union Canal in London, where much of The Earth Hums in B Flat was written. 

LIBRARIANS' COMMENTS

A view of 1950s Welsh life from the perspective of a young girl who discovers that adults have secrets. a wonderfully observed first novel.

 

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