Richard Harvell's The Bells, one of the more interesting books I read on vacation this year, was just released this week by Crown Publishing. Born to a deaf mother amidst the peals of the loudest bells in 18th-century Christendom, Moses Froben is a boy whose extraordinary sense of hearing is matched only by the altitudinous beauty of his soprano voice. Dark events in his young life lead him to seek sanctuary at the Abbey of St. Gall, where even darker events lead to the forced castration that will preserve his exquisite voice and rend him asunder from his true love. (Or will it?) All musical roads eventually lead to Vienna, and there he finds solace with friends old and new in this fascinating retelling of the Orpheus and Eurydice myth. An impressive debut that will delight historical fiction and classical music fans alike!
