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The Bells by Richard Harvell
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The Bells

A Novel

$20.99

Retail price: $27.95

Discount: 24%

This title is not eligible for purchase with membership credits. Why?

Narrator Richard Powers
Length 15 hours 51 minutes
Language English
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Dazzling, enchanting, and epic, The Bells is the confession of a thief, kidnapper, and unlikely lover—a boy with the voice of an angel whose exquisite sense of hearing becomes both his life's tragic curse and its greatest blessing.

Moses Froben was born in a belfry high in the Swiss Alps, the bastard son of a deaf-mute woman, banished to the church tower to ring the Loudest and Most Beautiful Bells in the land each day. His life is simple but content, until the day his father recognizes Moses' singular sense of hearing and its power to expose his sins. Cast into the world with only his ears to protect and guide him, Moses finds refuge in the choir of the historic Abbey of St. Gall and becomes its star singer, only to endure the horrifying act of castration, meant to preserve his angelic voice and turn him into a musico.

In a letter to his son, Moses recounts his humble birth in 18th-century Switzerland and his life as a novice monk, and he tells of the two noble friends—and a forbidden lover—whom he cherished during the chaotic years he spent in Mozart's Vienna as apprentice to the great Gaetano Guadagni. But in this letter he also reveals the astonishing secrets of his past and answers the question that has shadowed his fame: How did Moses Froben, world-renowned musico, come to raise a son he could never have sired?

Recounting his birth in the 1700s in a belfry high in the Alps, to his appearance on Europe's greatest stages, this epic novel is the story of the greatest ears on earth—from a deaf mother's cries, to the beating of a forbidden lover's heart, to the arias of Vienna's greatest opera house, and the deadly booming of the world's loudest, most glorious bells.

Richard Harvell was born in New Hampshire and studied English literature at Dartmouth College. He now lives in Basel, Switzerland, with his wife and son. This is his first novel.

Richard Powers is the author of New York Times bestseller Bewilderment; The Overstory, which won the Pulitzer Prize in Fiction; and The Echo Maker, which won the National Book Award and was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize; among many other novels. Powers has received a MacArthur Fellowship, a Lannan Literary Award, the James Fenimore Cooper Prize for Historical Fiction, and is a four-time National Book Critics Circle Award finalist. He lives in the foothills of the Great Smoky Mountains.

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Reviews

“Astonishing in its originality, epic in its scope, luminous in its richness, The Bells is a novel to be savored.”

The Bells does for the ears what Perfume did for the nose. A novel to engage the sense and tickle the mind.”

“Harvell has written an entertaining and eye-opening aria of a book.”

“Narrator Paul Michael Garcia deftly draws listeners into the life of Moses Froben…Garcia’s narration brings the book’s distinctive characters to life, from the delicate phrasing of Moses to the low rumble of the giant monk Nicolai….The description of the ringing of the loudest bells in Europe—which stop oxen in their tracks and set men’s bowels quivering—is pitch-perfect, and the drama only builds from there.”

“Harvell has fashioned an engrossing first novel ringing with sounds; a musical and literary treat.”

“Harvell’s debut is saturated with sound…A poignant and acutely told story of the human spirit.”

“When I look at my copy of The Bells sitting in front of me, I cannot believe it lies there immobile and lifeless…During the time I spent entranced with this story, my body rang like the bells within its pages…Harvell’s magical prose gives sound to Moses’ life: the bells, the arias, and the uneven breath of true love.”

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