The Earth Hums in B flat

This was very enjoyable book. I loved the writing style, with Gwennie as the narrator and felt I knew her by the end. It was very fluent and visual but spare. It drew you in and carried you along giving you a sense of the small community with all its mysteries. The drip feed of the family secrets and the unfolding of the murder of Ifans kept the tension although there were no surprises in the story.

The anthropomorphising of the Toby jugs and peeling paint faces were very effective and the dislike of blood, the family stomach and the fox fur all draw Gwennie as highly sensitive. She was obviously bright which Magda was unable to cope with and used put downs continuously. Was her rather neurotic behaviour and obsession with flying reaction to her mother's treatment or more sinisterly genetic mental disease?

We were on a journey with Gwennie while she discovered that there was more to the people around her than she understood as she unravelled her family history and some of the history of her neighbours, growing up all the while.

A satisfying read with characters that live on in the imagination.