Five Bells - Softcover

"an ambitious, beautifully written novel" (Reading Matters)

"Thoughtful, intelligent and intensely lyrical, Five Bells is likely to consolidate an already considerable literary reputation" (Guardian)

"A story peopled by achingly real characters, memorably related in delicate, ornate prose, and throbbing with loss" (Independent on Sunday)

"Jones's writing has the intensity of a dream, and the pattern she makes of the characters' lives is beautiful, managing to combine tension with lyricism" (The Times)

"An intense, poetic tale" (Financial Times)

On a radiant day in Sydney, four people converge on Circular Quay, site of the iconic Opera House and the Sydney Harbour Bridge. Each of the four is haunted by secrets from the past: Ellie is preoccupied by her sexual experiences as a girl, James by a tragedy for which he feels responsible, Catherine by the loss of her beloved brother in Dublin and Pei Xing by her imprisonment during China's Cultural Revolution.

Told over the course of a single Saturday, Five Bells vividly describes four lives which chime and resonate. By night-time, when Sydney is drenched in a rainstorm, each life has been transformed.