The Earth Hums in B Flat

March 2, 2009
Twelve-year-old Gwenni Morgan bears witness as her family crumbles under the weight of its secrets in Strachan’s lyrical debut. In a small Welsh village swirling with secrets and gossip, few are willing to tell the truth about who they are. Gwenni soars above the local intrigue in her dreams—each night as she drifts off to sleep she flies away from her family and over the nearby fields and farms—and hopes someday to fly during the day as well. Though most, including her mother, see Gwenni’s unending curiosity as a nuisance, local schoolteacher Elin Evans nurtures Gwenni’s dreams of a different life. When Elin’s husband, Ifan, disappears, town tongues wag, and when his body is found, Gwenni’s mother mourns him more than seems proper. Strachan ramps up the tension, as Gwenni is caught between loyalties and learns some damning family secrets. The author’s light touch keeps the story unfamiliar and surprising, while Gwenni’s über-precocious narration revels in a love for language and reveals an unspoiled innocence about the world. It’s small, quiet and nicely done.

May 15, 2009
Murder, suicide, madness and awful food: An artless Welsh child must deal with them all in this dire first novel from Strachan, a resident of West Wales.

Gwenni Morgan dreams every night of flying above her small seaside town in North Wales. Her reasons for escaping the here-and-now are clear. In her cramped home, the 12-year-old must share a bed with her hostile big sister Bethan. A bigger problem is her Mam (Mom). When she's not burning the pudding, Magda Morgan is on her daughter's case: Do this; don't do that. And why must she be so odd? Gwenni is an imaginative child who gives personalities to household objects. Her Tada (Dad), a gentle, passive stonemason, tolerates this, but Magda rules. There is another unhappy family in town. Ifan Evans is a shepherd, his wife Elin a genteel, sympathetic teacher; they have two small daughters. Rumor has it that he abuses his wife and kids; he may even have killed two of their babies in the past. Sometimes Gwenni helps Elin look after the girls, and she's very good with them. For half its length the novel, narrated by Gwenni, putters along like an old-fashioned YA story. The main activity in town is gossip; the period is the dreary interval between World War II and the arrival of television. The gossips have a field day when Ifan disappears and his body is found floating in the reservoir. Detectives question Gwenni. Two arrests are made, and a minor character kills herself (slashed wrists, lots of blood) before attention shifts back to Gwenni's family. Mam is becoming increasingly agitated over the dead shepherd. Were they lovers when Tada was off in the war? Skeletons tumble out of the closet in a last-minute rush, including revelations of madness and suicide (wristwork again) one generation back. Gwenni has her first period. When Mam becomes hysterical, calling her Satan, it's time for the needle. The doctor obliges.

A coming-of-age story hijacked by Grand Guignol.

(COPYRIGHT (2009) KIRKUS REVIEWS/NIELSEN BUSINESS MEDIA, INC. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.)

May 1, 2009
Every night in her dreams, Gwenni flies high above her Welsh village, looking at the lives unfolding beneath her and hearing the earths melodic hum. The sky is her sanctuary until one night the 12-year-old sees something puzzling and deeply disturbing. The very next day Ifan Evans, the chapel deacon and husband of Gwennis teacher, mysteriously goes missing. Intrigued, Gwenni decides to turn detective and determine the mans whereabouts. What she finds, instead, is that mystery begins at home in her and every other familys closely held and jealously guarded secrets, which, when revealed, can change lives forever. Set sometime in the 1950s, this first novel by a sixtysomething Welsh librarian is a beautifully realized debut. Strachan is especially good at infusing her material with a sense of magic that is rooted in ambiguity, and at capturing the sensibility of a small town where all lives are interconnected, for good or ill. The story takes a perhaps needlessly melodramatic turn near its end but is otherwise filled with lovely moments and insights.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2009, American Library Association.)