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The Earth Hums in B Flat

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The Earth Hums in B Flat

By: Mari Strachan
Narrated by: Jenni Lea-Jones
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About this listen

Young Gwenni Morgan is fond of strawberry whip, detective stories, and asking difficult questions. When a neighbour mysteriously vanishes, she resolves to uncover the secret of his disappearance. 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?

©2009 Mari Strachan (P)2009 WF Howes Ltd Fiction Genre Fiction Literary Fiction
All stars
Most relevant

Would you try another book written by Mari Strachan or narrated by Jenni Lea-Jones?

I would not go out of my way to no

Would you be willing to try another book from Mari Strachan? Why or why not?

If I found a highly recommended one then yes

What did you like about the performance? What did you dislike?

Nothing stands out in either camp

If this book were a film would you go see it?

Probably not

Any additional comments?

None

Not quite what I expected

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The story is set in the 50's and takes place in a North Wales village. I grew up in the early Seventies in a West Wales village and I found characters in the novel that were part of my daily life. The secrets just under the surface and their devastating destructive effects are brilliantly realised by Mari Strachan, This is her first novel, to date she has only penned two and what an incredible debut this is. So much is subtext, but don't let that put you off because it is so well written that you know what is going on and f eel a dread on what the outcome will be. It is dark, but I found the ending to be touching and optimistic. Jenni Lea-Jones captures the accents, tonality and slang of the Welsh rural culture and will bring alive all the characters to every listener wherever in the globe they listen.

POWERFUL

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When listening to this audio book I always fell asleep. A bit too slow for my taste. Not exactly action packed!

Great if you shave sleeping difficulties!

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I think I'd have given four stars for the right reader. The pace is slow and gentle and for a modern 13 year old the protagonist would be too naive. But this is 1950s Harlech. The poverty and inwardness are very well captured and I like the pace. But why do we have a South Welsh reader? It's like hearing someone with a Somerset accent voicing folk from Yorkshire. I was putting up with it until Aneurin turned up. Even in South Wales nobody pronounces it "An-your-in". It drove me almost to screaming. BBC Wales or S4C could easily find someone more plausible. (In English-speaking South East Wales it's "An- eye-rin", hence Nye Bevan. In Welsh-speaking Wales it tends towards "An-aye-rin".) It's not that difficult to get it right.

Wrong reader

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