The Bell of the World

Sarah Hutchinson returns unsettled from an English boarding school and a spell in Europe, and her family packs her off to Ngangahook, their farm on the Victorian coast, to stay with her odd Uncle Ferny. With the roar of the sea always around them, the pair grow close: they welcome naturalists on field trips and hold musical evenings at which Sarah plays a piano whose tone she has changed with things collected from beach and scrub. Ferny's life is bound up with his worn-out copy of Such Is Life, which a local bookbinder saves by sewing it together with an obscure American story about whaling. When townspeople ask the Hutchinsons to fund a bell to sanctify the wild country, niece and uncle refuse to give in to local pressure and stand their ground.

AI-generated summary

About the book

Form

Novel

Genres

Nature, Historical, Family (assigned by AI)

Set in

Australia, early to mid-20th century

First published

2023

ISBN

9781923023246 (Transit Lounge, Australia)