When Things Are Alive They Hum - Softcover

Hannah Bent

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1761150464 ISBN 13: 9781761150463

Publisher: Ultimo Press, 2023

Synopsis

‘An emotive and confronting debut.’ – Woman’s Weekly

‘Truths of the heart, sisterly devotion, grief, and medical ethics – this beautifully-written debut is a life-affirming, love-filled tear-jerker.’ – Love Reading

‘Posing profound questions about grief, love and fate, Bent’s debut celebrates life and sisterhood in an awe-inspiring way.’ – Harper's Bazaar

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 Harper’s happiness is complete, having found love with boyfriend, Louis. But then she receives the devastating call that Harper’s 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 Harper’s side and soon has to answer the question – what lengths would you go to save your sister? Intensely moving, exquisitely written and literally humming with wonder, it is a novel that celebrates life in all its guises, and what comes after.

About this title

About the Author

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.

From the Back Cover

An intensely moving novel about sisterly love for fans of Jodie Picoult and Maggie O’Farrell

Edition details

• Publisher: Ultimo Press
• Publication date: 2023
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1761150464
• ISBN 13: 9781761150463
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 384