The Bellwether Revivals: A NovelBenjamin Wood
Viking Adult, June 2012
ISBN: 978-0670023592
A sophisticated debut novel about the hypnotic influence of love, the beguiling allure of money and the haunting power of music
The Bellwether Revivals is the story of Oscar Lowe, a young caregiver at a retirement home in Cambridge, England, who stumbles across Eden and Iris Bellwether along with their friends, Jane, Marcus and Yin. When Oscar and Iris start dating, he is drawn into the world of the five scholars who tend to stick to themselves. What starts as a mutual appreciation for music blossoms into a love between Iris and Oscar and an uneasy friendship with her manic brother, Eden.
Eden, a gifted musician and composer seems fixated on the idea that he can heal others through his music. Iris, concerned for her brother’s welfare, enlists Oscar’s assistance in helping her brother. Eden is a music scholar and firmly believes in his power to heal through music. When Iris has a tragic accident Eden sets about to heal her but Iris and Oscar begin to believe that Eden is crazy. Iris wavers in her belief but Oscar sets about to prove Eden's madness with the help of Herbert Crest a psychologist who has written about this type of personality disorder before.
Eden Bellwether is presented as an arrogant, charismatic but sinister Cambridge student who is obsessed with philosophy and music theory, but even more obsessed with himself. His desperation to have his power proven right, and to be viewed as a hero and a healer, leads to some truly horrifying acts. Benjamin Wood has crafted a sophisticated and complex debut novel; it models clear prose, deep and consistent character development, and a mastery of tension. The series of events that unfold in The Bellwether Revivals are astounding, baffling and compelling in equal measure.
BENJAMIN WOOD was born in 1981 and grew up in northwest England. In 2004, he was awarded a Commonwealth Scholarship to attend the MFA Creative Writing Programme at the University of British Columbia, Canada, where he was also the fiction editor of the literary journal PRISM International. Wood is now a lecturer in creative writing at Birkbeck, University of London. The Bellwether Revivals is his first novel.
ISBN: 978-0670023592; ISBN10: 0670023590; Imprint: Viking Adult; On Sale: 6/14/2012; Format: Hardcover; Pages: 432; $26.95
