When Things Are Alive They Hum

(Paperback)

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Australian Womens WeeklyGreat Read
Shortlisted Indie Book Awards for Debut Fiction
Woman & Home Books of the Year
Shortlisted MUD Literary Prize
Shortlisted ABIA Award for General Fiction
Shortlisted ABIA Matt Richell Award New Writer of the Year

Hannah Bents outstanding debut is a wise, wondrous celebration of life.The Australian

Hannah Bent has created a literary heroine of such pure beauty she takes your breath away.Australian Womens Weekly

Read it if you like: Your sister, anything by Trent Dalton, having a good cry, andMy Sisters Keeper. Mamamia

Marlowe and Harper share a bond deeper than most sisters, shaped by the loss of their mother in childhood. For Harper, living with what she calls the Up syndrome and gifted with an endless capacity for wonder, Marlowe and she are connected by an invisible thread, like the hum that connects all things. For Marlowe, they are bound by her fierce determination to keep Harper, born with a congenital heart disorder, alive.

Now twenty-five, Marlowe is living abroad when she receives the devastating call that Harpers heart is failing and she is being denied a transplant by the medical establishment. Marlowe rushes to her childhood home in Hong Kong to be by Harpers side and soon has to answer the question what lengths would you go to save your sister

When Things are Alive They Hum poses profound questions about the nature of love and existence, the ways grief changes us, and how we confront the hand fate has dealt us. Intensely moving, exquisitely written and literally humming with wonder, it is a novel that celebrates life in all its guises, and what comes after.

PRAISE FORWHEN THINGS ARE ALIVE THEY HUM

When literature is alive it hums, and rattles and warms and hurts and heals. Hannah Bent and her wondrous Harper and Marlowe have changed the way Ive been going about my days. What a gift. Trent Dalton, author ofBoy Swallows UniverseandAll Our Shimmering Skies

A simply beautiful novel.Good Reading

...what stayed with me was the achingly beautiful portrayal of the love between the two sisters. If I had a sister, that is how I would like to feel. Nicole Abadee, Sydney Morning Herald

heartbreakingly beautifulFamily Circle

Reviews

One of the most captivating and memorable books Ive read in a long time. Brave, tender and heartfelt, I foresee cheese platters stripped down to the last cracker as bookclubs reflect on this beautiful and thought-provoking novel. * Joanna Nell, author of The Single Ladies of Jacaranda Retirement Village *
Hannah Bent has created a literary heroine of such pure beauty she takes your breath away. * Australian Women's Weekly *
Hannah Bents novel is compelling and tender, powerfully placing the reader in the heart and the mind of two sisters with contrasting expectations of life, and the imperatives of love. At times this pulls them in dangerously different directions but ultimately their ability to honour the essence of each other reminds us that in doing so, life-giving expansion is possible even when life itself may be diminishing. * Suzanne Daniel, author of Allegra in Three Parts *
My heart feels larger for reading Hannah Bents beautiful debut. This is a novel which hums with love, truth and tenderness. I defy readers not to fall in love with Marlowe and Harper. * Kathryn Heyman, author of Fury *
a tender portrayal of sisterly love and impossible choices that will break your heart.
* Sydney Morning Herald *
Posing profound questions about grief, love and fate, Bents debut celebrates life and sisterhood in an awe-inspiring way. * Harper's Bazaar *
At once uplifting and heartbreaking, this is a story about the special bond between two sisters. * Sunday Life *

Author Bio

Born and raised in Hong Kong, Hannah Bent completed her Bachelor of Arts in Fine Art and Film from Central Saint Martins School of Art and Design in London. She undertook further study in both directing and screenwriting at the Australian Film, Television and Radio School and has a Masters in Creative Writing from the University of Technology, Sydney. She was the 2013 recipient of the Ray Koppe Young Writers Award for her novel as a work in progress.