The Bells
A Novel
This is a dazzling, enchanting, and epic tale - the confession of a thief, kidnapper, and unlikely lover. Moses Froben was born in the 18th century, in a belfry high in the Swiss Alps, the bastard son of a deaf-mute woman, banished to the church tower to ring the abbey bells. His life is simple but content, until the day his father recognizes Moses' singular sense of hearing and its power to expose sins. After finding refuge in a great abbey where he becomes a star singer, he is forced to undergo castration. Under the apprenticeship of the great Gaitano Guadagni, the help of two noble friends and a secret lover, he survives the intrigues of Mozart's Vienna as he rises to become Europe's most celebrated star, Lo Svizzero. But the most astonishing feat of all is how he came to raise a son who, by all rights, he never could have sired.
