The Earth Hums in B Flat (Unabridged) [Audio Download]

The book starts gently, easing the reader into the world of Gwenni Morgan, a young girl who is fascinated by everything and everyone around her. The author, Strachan, introduces a splendidly entertaining cast of misfits and eccentrics, made all the more entertaining because they feel so real. In 1950s Welsh village life, everyone knows everyone's business but no-one ever says a thing.

Gwenni is a wide-eyed, captivated observer of everything that goes on. She describes the people, their clothes, their mannerisms - often in hilarious terms but always in manner consistent with her charming character. Strachan does a splendid job of maintaining Gwenni's voice and personality throughout.

It is this attention to detail that makes the story so beguiling. It quickly gathers pace with a missing man, police enquiries and a murder investigation all careering headlong into a surprising - and yet entirely logical - climax.

This is one of those books you read at one sitting, tea and biscuits at your side and a big 'Do Not Disturb' notice on the door. Superb.

According to Wikipedia, an ingénue is "a girl or a young woman who is endearingly innocent and wholesome". She is generally accompanied, as foil, by a vamp and there is often a romantic subplot featuring a young man just as innocent as the ingénue.

On this template, Mari Strachan has constructed a beautiful story set in a small Welsh village within sight of Snowdon in the late 1950s.

The ingénue is Gwenni Morgan, poised at the very end of childhood, who is bright, imaginative and therefore considered "odd" by her stolid peers, mother and sister. Her Kindred Spirit and Best Friend, Alwenna, is the knowing vamp, who has just discovered boys. Gwenni's `romantic interest' comes towards the end and is hardly that, a merest precursor for what is to come.

It is a truth universally understood that remote rural villages are hotbeds of illicit relationships overlaid with secrets and lies. The death of one of the villagers leads to an investigation and Gwenni is determined to play detective. Her relentless, innocent "childish" questions directly challenge the protective hypocrisy all around. It's scary stuff.

Ms Strachan has a wonderful feel for poverty in the 1950s. Her descriptions of the Morgans' domestic life: bed-sharing, paper thin walls, freezing cold, disgusting food, baths in front of the fire, a relentless lack of privacy, draw one into a life before this one. I am old enough to remember this the first time round and it certainly felt horribly authentic.

The plot is carefully handled, and the book rapidly becomes a real page turner. The intelligence in this book is that even as the reader reaches the end, and has the momentary illusion that all loose ends have been definitively tied up, there comes a realisation that all of what we think we know is in fact ambiguous. We may hope that Gwenni has finally come to a complete understanding, but she does have a habit of putting the best complexion on things.

The first person narrative style and linear development make this a suitable book for the `young adult' as well as adult market. It was also serialised on BBC Radio 4's "A Book at Bedtime". Highly recommended.

The first thing I noticed when reading "The Earth Hums in B Flat", the debut novel by Mari Strachan, is that the author entered the mindset of a girl on the brink of adolescence in an utterly convincing manner.

Set in Wales in the 1950s, "The Earth Hums in B Flat" is a tale told in the first person of Gwenni, a young girl who is considered 'odd' by her mother and older sister, mainly due to her over-active imagination and her need to know the truth. Her innocent curiosity into the adult world and the way grown-ups behave compels her to turn detective when a local man is murdered.

While Gwenni is clearly still clinging on to parts of childhood (her doll, her daydreaming) she is also forced into adulthood almost against her will (finding out that a boy likes her, starting her periods, looking after her family). The reader is shown this transition in all its painful awkwardness. The way Gwenni escapes from her troubles and her suffocating family life is to imagine herself flying above the village whilst listening to the earth sing. This imagery is stunning.

As a reader, you find yourself in the unique position of knowing more than your heroine. I understood what was happening to the village and Gwenni's family and why her parents were acting and reacting in the way they were before Gwenni did, and it was interesting to watch her work things out in her own way. As it turns out, Gwenni is an extremely clever young lady who understands her community better than anyone else as she learns to ignore the local gossips and uncover the truth, even though ultimately it is a truth that must remain hidden.

I think "The Earth Hums in B Flat" is a beautifully written and utterly compelling book. It would certainly appeal to teenagers as well as young adults, and Gwenni is a hugely likeable character. I did find myself feeling a little sad knowing that I was watching a child rapidly losing her innocence, knowing that she would never be able to go back. Thoroughly recommended.