A City Of Bells

Returning injured from the Boer War, Jocelyn Irvin travels to the quiet cathedral town of Torminster. Welcomed there by his young cousin Hugh Anthony, his grandparents and their adopted daughter Henrietta, Jocelyn begins to rediscover his enjoyment of life. As he embraces old friendships and new relationships, Jocelyn becomes captivated by the mystery of writer Gabriel Ferranti, a man whose unexplained disappearance months before has cast a shadow which only his return can lift. A charming story of love, family and laying to rest ghosts of the past. What readers are saying about Elizabeth Goudge 'Miss Goudge is a born storyteller' - 5 STARS 'I wish I had discovered Elizabeth Goudge a long time ago!' - 5 STARS 'One of the greatest storytellers of our time' - 5 STARS 'Her writing is unique' - 5 STARS 'Elizabeth Goudge is an author par excellence' - 5 STARS

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 each day the Loudest and Most Beautiful Bells in the land. His life is simple but he is content, until the day his father recognizes Moses's 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 great 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 eighteenth-century Switzerland and his life as a novice monk, and tells of the two noble friends — and a forbidden lover — whom he cherished during his chaotic years in Mozart's Vienna as apprentice to the great Gaetano Guadagni, and even as he ascended Europe's most celebrated stages as Lo Svizzero. But in this letter he will also reveal the astonishing secrets of his past and answer the question that has shadowed his fame: how did Moses Froben, world-renowned musico, come to raise a son who by all rights he could never have sired?

As read on BBC Radio 4 'Book of the Week' Shortlisted for the Stanford Dolman Travel Book of the Year Award Longlisted for the RSL Ondaatje Prize 'Sherman’s is a special book. Every sentence, every thought she has, every question she asks, every detail she notices, offers something. The Bells of Old Tokyo is a gift . . . It is a masterpiece.' - The Spectator A hauntingly original book about Tokyo and the Japanese relationship to time, memory and history. For over 300 years, Japan closed itself to outsiders, developing a remarkable and unique culture. During its period of isolation, the inhabitants of the city of Edo, later known as Tokyo, relied on its public bells to tell the time. In her remarkable book, Anna Sherman tells of her search for the bells of Edo, exploring the city of Tokyo and its inhabitants and the individual and particular relationship of Japanese culture - and the Japanese language - to time, tradition, memory, impermanence and history. Through Sherman’s journeys around the city, The Bells of Old Tokyo presents a series of hauntingly memorable voices in the labyrinth of the Japanese capital: An aristocrat plays in the sea of ashes left by the Allied firebombing of 1945. A scientist builds the most accurate clock in the world, a clock that will not lose a second in five billion years. A sculptor eats his father’s ashes while the head of the house of Tokugawa reflects on the destruction of his grandfather’s city. 'This mesmerising cultural history explores the neighbourhoods where Tokyo's bells once rang . . . As our own locked-down days squeeze and elongate, Tokyo time feels strangely familiar.’ - Daily Telegraph

Dean of the cathedral in an 1870s English town, Adam Ayscough is respected and misunderstood. A dogged crusader against corruption, he's also acutely shy. When his watch breaks, he forms an unlikely friendship with watchmaker Isaac Peabody, who doesn't think he has anything in common with God. Will their relationship open the door to grace?

Holiday cheer turns to holiday fear when a Salem, MA, tour guide is murdered in this cozy mystery featuring a local reporter with psychic abilities. Former TV psychic Lee Barrett is back on the air at Salem’s WICH-TV as the new field reporter. Next on her holiday checklist is an interview with the beloved chairman of a popular walking tour through Salem’s historic districts. But it may be his ghost walking this snowy season after Lee finds him murdered in his stately offices, bloody Santa hat askew. With her police detective boyfriend working the case and a witch’s brew of suspects—including some bell-ringing Santas—Lee chases down leads aided and abetted by her wise cat O’Ryan and some unsettling psychic visions of her own. When a revealing clue leads to another dead body, not even a monster blizzard can stop Lee from getting a scoop—even one that could spell her own demise.

Russell Janney’s debut novel tells the story of Bill Dunnigan, the greatest press agent in America, who brings the body of Olga Treskovna, the purest female and best actress of America, to Coaltown, the worst mining town in the country, for burial. The first part of the book is a flashback to the love story of the press agent and the actress, which was ideal, rather uncomplicated, and completely unconsummated. However, with Olga’s death, there begins an exhibition of power by the press agent—and this becomes the real substance of the book. A novel of joyousness in life that will sweep the reader into a delightful liberating experience...