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'When a troubled Sarah Hutchinson returns to Australia from boarding school in England and time spent in Europe, she is sent to live with her eccentric Uncle Ferny on the family property, Ngangahook. With the sound of the ocean surrounding everything they do on the farm, Sarah and her uncle form an inspired bond hosting visiting field naturalists and holding soirees in which Sarah performs on a piano whose sound she has altered with items and objects from the bush and shore.
'As Sarah’s world is nourished by music and poetry, Ferny’s life is marked by Such is Life, a book he has read and reread, so much so that the volume is falling apart. Its saviour is Jones the Bookbinder of Moolap, who performs a miraculous act. To shock and surprise, Jones interleaves Ferny’s volume with a book he bought from an American sailor, a once obscure tale of whales and the sea. In art as in life nature seems supreme. Ngangahook and its environs are threatened, however, when members of the community ask the Hutchinsons to help ‘make a savage landscape sacred’ by financing the installation of a town bell. The fearless musician and her idealistic uncle refuse to buckle to local pressures, mounting their own defence of ‘the bell of the world’.
'Gregory Day’s new novel embodies a cultural reckoning in a breathtakingly beautiful and lyrical way. The Bell of the World is both a song to the natural wonders that are not yet gone and a luminous prehistory of contemporary climate change and its connection to colonialism. It is a book immersed in the early to mid-twentieth century but written very much for the hearts of the future.' (Publication summary)
Notes
-
for Sian Rachel Marlow.
Publication Details of Only Known VersionEarliest 2 Known Versions of
Works about this Work
-
y
Gregory Day in Conversation
Elly Varrenti
(interviewer),
2023
26203353
2023
single work
podcast
interview
'In this episode, a recording taken from the launch of Gregory Day’s novel, The Bell of The World.
'The Bell of the World is both a song to the natural wonders that are not yet gone and a luminous prehistory of contemporary climate change and its connection to colonialism.
'Bell is in conversation with writer and broadcaster Elly Varrenti.' (Introduction)
-
Big-picture Thinking : In The Bell of the World, Gregory Day Listens to the Music of Common Things
2023
single work
review
— Appears in: The Conversation , 30 March 2023;
— Review of The Bell of the World 2023 single work novel'Gregory Day’s The Bell of the World is an ambitious, strange and marvellous novel.'
-
The Bell of the World by Gregory Day Review : An Electric Crescendo of Australian Nature Writing
2023
single work
review
— Appears in: The Guardian Australia , 10 March 2023;
— Review of The Bell of the World 2023 single work novel -
Jugulating Torrents : Gregory Day’s New Novel
2023
single work
review
— Appears in: Australian Book Review , March no. 451 2023; (p. 35)
— Review of The Bell of the World 2023 single work novel 'Early in Gregory Day’s new novel, Uncle Ferny reads Such Is Life aloud in a Roman bar. His niece Sarah observes listeners’ ‘confusion, amusement, their disdain, their curiosity, and also their rapture’. A similar range of responses might be manifested by readers of The Bell of the World.' (Introduction) -
Gregory Day The Bell of the World
2023
single work
review
— Appears in: The Saturday Paper , 4-10 March 2023;
— Review of The Bell of the World 2023 single work novel'Among the literary honours awarded to Gregory Day is the 2021 prize from The Nature Conservancy Australia. A profound commitment to the future of the planet as well as a passion for all forms of music and language and a keen awareness of the truths of Indigenous culture form the fabric of his soaring, astonishing new novel.' (Introduction)
-
Gregory Day The Bell of the World
2023
single work
review
— Appears in: The Saturday Paper , 4-10 March 2023;
— Review of The Bell of the World 2023 single work novel'Among the literary honours awarded to Gregory Day is the 2021 prize from The Nature Conservancy Australia. A profound commitment to the future of the planet as well as a passion for all forms of music and language and a keen awareness of the truths of Indigenous culture form the fabric of his soaring, astonishing new novel.' (Introduction)
-
Jugulating Torrents : Gregory Day’s New Novel
2023
single work
review
— Appears in: Australian Book Review , March no. 451 2023; (p. 35)
— Review of The Bell of the World 2023 single work novel 'Early in Gregory Day’s new novel, Uncle Ferny reads Such Is Life aloud in a Roman bar. His niece Sarah observes listeners’ ‘confusion, amusement, their disdain, their curiosity, and also their rapture’. A similar range of responses might be manifested by readers of The Bell of the World.' (Introduction) -
The Bell of the World by Gregory Day Review : An Electric Crescendo of Australian Nature Writing
2023
single work
review
— Appears in: The Guardian Australia , 10 March 2023;
— Review of The Bell of the World 2023 single work novel -
Big-picture Thinking : In The Bell of the World, Gregory Day Listens to the Music of Common Things
2023
single work
review
— Appears in: The Conversation , 30 March 2023;
— Review of The Bell of the World 2023 single work novel'Gregory Day’s The Bell of the World is an ambitious, strange and marvellous novel.'
-
y
Gregory Day in Conversation
Elly Varrenti
(interviewer),
2023
26203353
2023
single work
podcast
interview
'In this episode, a recording taken from the launch of Gregory Day’s novel, The Bell of The World.
'The Bell of the World is both a song to the natural wonders that are not yet gone and a luminous prehistory of contemporary climate change and its connection to colonialism.
'Bell is in conversation with writer and broadcaster Elly Varrenti.' (Introduction)
Awards
- 2023 longlisted Mark and Evette Moran Nib Award for Literature