Today it's a pleasure to take part in the BlogTour Ellie and the Harp Maker. It's contemporary fiction, a story about breaking free from the chains of our existence and societal rules.
Hazel Prior lives on Exmoor with her husband and a huge ginger cat. As well as writing, she works as a harpist.
You can find and follow Hazel at @HaveAHarp on Twitter, Visit hazeltheharpist.co.uk
Buy Ellie and the Harp Maker
About the book
Meet Ellie. She’s perfectly happy with her home and her husband and her quiet life. Happy enough,
anyway. Which is why she’s so surprised to find herself drawn to an extrordinary stranger who
gives her a gift - and a fresh perspective.
Dan. He thinks all he needs to be happy is the time and space to carry on making harps.
Sometimes people buy them, too. But the last thing he expects is for Ellie to walk into his life, a
whirlwind with cherry-coloured socks, bringing a string of surprises into his ordered existence.
As Ellie and Dan get to know one another, they begin to see the world - and themselves - in an
entirely new way...
What comes to mind when you read this is the simplicity of the interactions, the words, the dialogue and structure of the story.
Whilst it is never referred to in the sense of a diagnosis, it's clear that Dan doesn't fit into certain typical stereotypes. He has his own way of living. A perspective through his own lenses, which doesn't necessarily fit with the general overall perspective the majority of the world has.
The author doesn't give it or Dan a label, which I found quite refreshing, because that way every reader experiences him in a different way and through their own frame of reference. His vision of the world and of beauty is envisioned through the works of art, his harps. He doesn't make them to make money, he creates them because he has a calling. That's the only way to explain it. His harps have individual identities, each one forged by hand.
When Ellie stumbles upon Dan and his harps she has no idea how it will change her life. It helps her to open up the door to her own wants, needs and dreams. A life controlled, determined and undermined first by her parents and then by her husband. A possessive and abusive husband who doesn't want her to discover the magic of harps.
On a side-note: Anyone who calls any person, especially a woman Honey-pun deserves to be tarred, feathered, maimed and quartered. I am fairly certain that would drive me to commit the most heinous of crimes. Why did you kill your husband? He called me Honey-pun one too many times.
I couldn't decide whether I liked the oversimplified writing, however when taking the entirety of the story into consideration it helped to portray and tell the story in a way it needed to be told.
It's contemporary fiction, a story about breaking free from the chains of our existence and societal rules. It's also a story about self-discovery and lifting the veil of oppression.
Buy Ellie and the Harp Maker at Amazon Uk or go to Goodreads for any other retailer.Publisher: Bantam Press; pub date 2 May 2019. Buy at Amazon com.
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