A poignant and acutely told story of the human spirit highly recommended. 'Harvell has fashioned an engrossing first novel ringing with sounds a musical and literary treat.' Sarah Dunant, international bestselling author of Sacred Hearts A novel to engage the senses as well as tickle the mind.' Dazzling, enchanting, and epic, The Bells is the confession of a thief, kidnapper, and unlikely lovera boy with the voice of an angel whose exquisite sense of hearing becomes both his lifes tragic curse and its greatest blessing. 'The Bells does for the ears what Perfume did for the nose. Dazzling, enchanting and epic, The Bellsis 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. He now lives in Basel, Switzerland, with his wife and children. A poignant and acutely told story of the human spirit highly recommended.' -Library Journal RICHARD HARVELL was born in New Hampshire, USA, and studied English literature at Dartmouth College. A novel to engage the senses as well as tickle the mind.' -Sarah Dunant, international bestselling author of Sacred Hearts 'Harvell has fashioned an engrossing first novel ringing with sounds a musical and literary treat.' -Booklist 'Wrenching and painfully triumphant. About The Bells: INDIE NEXT PICK, October, 2010 'The Bells does for the ears what Perfume did for the nose. (Sept.RICHARD HARVELL was born in New Hampshire, USA, and studied English literature at Dartmouth College. Moses's ardor impels him to Vienna and its vibrant opera scene, where his brief appearance on stage allows love to triumph before, unsurprisingly, tragedy brings down the curtain. His ability to sound like an angel brings him into contact with a wealthy family, sparking an impossible love affair with a beautiful but crippled woman. A tormented choirmaster castrates Moses to preserve his beautiful voice, transforming him into a 'musico,' a soprano whose voice never deepens, and who will never be a man. When Moses says, 'I wished I could dissolve into sound,' the reader shares his frustration. into something beautiful.' Harvell, however, shows his own limitations when he seeks to describe the resonance of music. Cast from his home, he joins a choir, discovering that he can mold 'that ocean of sound. Moses, born to a deaf-mute in a belfry, possesses a unique bond to music. Chronicling the journey of 18th-century singer Moses Froben from his Swiss village to Vienna, this debut novel strikes many melodramatic notes in an overwrought plot squalor, beauty, horror, forbidden love, tragedy, and triumph splash broadly, sometimes artfully, but often with operatic excess.

The bells by richard harvell