This is a lovely story, set in a small town in Wales. Gwenni, 12 years old, is the narrator, her sister Bethan is a shrew, and her mother Magdalen, appears to have some secrets that have caused her to take some powerful tranquillizers, especially after Gwenni's friend, Elin Evans, and her two children, leave town after Elin's husband is found murdered. Gwenni is very close to her father, known as Tada. The Welsh nomenclature was a bit puzzling at first, but this was a lovely story, charmingly told,and the author is obviously well-versed in the way young people can sometimes misinterpret things, or indeed, clarify things that otherwise might not be discussed at all.
Gwenni has a wonderful imagination: I especially enjoyed Mrs. LLewellyn Pugh's fox stole, which Gwenni swears blinked at her in church! And, let Gwenni herself explain the title:
When I sang the note to Mr. Hughes he said it was B flat but he laughed when I said it was the note the Earth hummed. He doesn’t know how the Earth’s deep, never-ending note clothes me in rainbow colors and fills my head with all the books ever written. I could stay up here forever without the need for anything else in the whole world.
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