When Things Are Alive They Hum

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

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


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 25, Marlowe is finally living her own life abroad, pursuing her studies of a rare species of butterfly secure in the knowledge Harpers happiness is complete, having found love with boyfriend, Louis. But then she receives the devastating call that Harpers heart is failing. She needs a heart transplant but is denied one by the medical establishment because she is living with a disability. 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
compelling and tender Suzanne Daniel, author ofAllegra in Three Parts

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.