The Earth Hums in B Flat by Mari Strachan

“Bethan cried herself to sleep tonight. I leave her hiccupping and snoring as I rise up, up, up into the sky where the air is as soft to rest upon as Mrs. William Penrhiw’s powdery bosom. Up here, far away from everybody, the night is peaceful; there’s no sound except the hum of the Earth. At school, when I sang the note to Mr. Hughes Music he said it was B flat but he laughed when I said it was the note the Earth hummed.” (page284)
Mari Strachan’s astonishing debut novel brings us the voice of one of the most endearing adolescent narrators in recent memory. Gwennie Morgan is 12 years old, lives with her mother, father and sister Bethan in a Welsh village in the 1950’s, goes to school with her best friend Alwenna, is a budding detective and … oh yes, she flies-unaided by an airplane or any other contrivance. The story begins as she is flying at night through her village and fretting as to why she can’t seem to fly during the day. Immediatley I fell in love with her, mostly because I can remember myself dreaming of flying at her age too.
Gwennie is very much in tune with everything around her and her creative spirit kicks in when she attempts to solve the mystery surrounding the disappearance of her neighbor, Ifan Evans. Add to this, Gwennie’s growing pains that accompany her pubescent maturation, a mother suffering from mental illness who emotionally abuses her, growing alienation from her good friend Alwenna, a father that loves and understands her, a tender love for all things in nature and it is easy to see how Gwennie needs to fly to keep herself abreast of all that’s happening in her small town and to sort out her baffling feelings. When her detective work leads her to a resolution that strikes very close to home, Gwennie must decide how much information she will share and with whom, knowing that the knowledge will hurt those close to her. It’s the flying above this humming earth that soothes Gwennie’s spinning head: “But he doesn’t know how the Earth’s deep, never-ending note clothes me in rainbow colours, fills my head with all the books ever written, and feeds me with the smell of Mrs. Sergeant Jones’s famous vanilla biscuits and the strawberry taste of Instant Whip and the cool slipperiness of glowing red jelly. I could stay up here forever without the need for anything else in the whole world.” (page 284)
Strachan does a terrific job developing Gwennie’s character, as well as all the other characters in the story. I really felt I knew them and could easily empathize with them. I wanted to be in that close-knit little town in Wales and I was sorry to see the story end. I’m hoping this is just the beginning for an author who shows great promise. Highly recommended. ( )