Vintage
It's not often that you finish a book and decide to reread it straight away. This is what I have done with Five Bells. I found the structure intriguing and wanted to review how her four main characters may have glanced off one another when they converged on Circular Quay one fateful Saturday. I first visited the area at a very young age and have been held in its thrall for most of my life. It is this setting and on this day that we get to understand her characters and the 'baggage' they bring to the quay. Not only did the setting strike a chord with me but also a little gems like this: "People have too little faith in modest conversation, she thought, and in what was known but remained silent or impossible to express. The veneration of small sentences, or a gesture, or even a single word; this was the fabric of civility, the basic social contract. One could die without it." Food for thought in today's world. I loved this book.
BiP staff review by Sue
