The Bell of the World

When a troubled Sarah Hutchinson returns to Australia from boarding school in England and time spent in Europe, she is sent to live with her eccentric Uncle Ferny on the family property, Ngangahook. As Sarah’s world is nourished by music and poetry, Ferny’s life is marked by Such is Life, a book he has read and reread, so much so that the volume is falling apart. Its saviour is Jones the Bookbinder, who performs a miraculous act. To shock and surprise, Jones interleaves Ferny’s volume with Moby Dick, a book he bought from an American sailor, a once obscure tale of whales and the sea. In art as in life nature seems supreme. Ngangahook and its environs are threatened, however, when members of the community ask the Hutchinsons to help ‘make a savage landscape sacred’ by financing the installation of a town bell. The fearless musician and her idealistic uncle refuse to buckle to local pressures, mounting their own defence of ‘the bell of the world’.

The Bell of the World
Author: Gregory Day
Publisher: Transit Lounge
Rights held: World
Contact: Barry Scott or FionaHenderson
Website: www.transitlounge.com.au

Category: Think Australian Title Preview