The Passing Bells: A Novel

(Paperback)

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Description

Before Downton Abbey, there was Abingdon Pryory, the elegant country home of the Grevilles-a titled English family who, along with their servants, see their world turned upside down when England goes to war. Once their well-kept lawns and whirling social seasons give way to the horrors of World War I, no one, upstairs or downstairs, is left untouched. For fans of sweeping historical fiction, the reissue of Phillip Rock's New York Times bestseller The Passing Bells is a breathtaking family saga not to be missed.

Reviews

"A capacity to shock, to astonish, and to engage ... written throughout with economy and wit." -- New York Times Book Review "Swift and startling power ... moving ... entertaining ... can absorb you into its fictional landscape as easily as Alice passing through the looking glass." -- Chicago Tribune Book World "Well-written, exciting ... echoes of Hemingway, Graves, and 'Upstairs, Downstairs,' with characters who breathe and about whom one cares." -- Library Journal "Spellbinding. This is really a start-reading-and-don't-stop-until-you're-finished-novel." -- Publishers Weekly "Every twenty-five years or so, we are blessed with a war novel, outstanding in that it depicts not only the history of our time, but also its soul." -- West Coast Review of Books "Fascinating ... a timeless tale of the conflicts that emerge from a violent change. It is a delight to read." -- Cleveland Press

Author Bio

Born in Hollywood, California, Phillip Rock moved to England with his family when he was seven, attending school there for six years until the blitz of 1940, and lived as an adult in Los Angeles. He was the author of three previous novels before THE PASSING BELLSThe Passing Bells series: FLICKERS, THE DEAD IN GUANAJUATO, and THE EXTRAORDINARY SEAMAN. He died in 2004.