When Things Are Alive They Hum Hannah Bent, by Ultimo Press
In Harper Ming Hua Eve, author Hannah Bent has created a literary heroine of such pure beauty she takes your breath away, which is pertinent since breath is something Harper craves. We meet this very special young woman at the age of 21 when her health is failing her, as it has so many times before. Nevertheless, Harper displays a zest for life and cheerfulness that makes anyone who meets her, not least the reader, question their own outlook. She can’t abide those who damn her condition as Down syndrome – to Harper it is Up syndrome, beneficent and rather fabulous.
Harper’s vision of the world, of her family, her boyfriend and of human emotions like love and loss, is profound and she writes about it all in her notebook. Her focus on what matters has a clarity and poetry that is at once refreshing and heartbreaking, for in Harper we see our own shortcomings as individuals, and society’s many big and small inhumanities.
“My main inspiration was my relationship with my sister Camilla, who lives with Down syndrome,” Bent says. “I was also very interested in the themes of grief and love, and how experiences of both can change us.”
Harper’s story is told through her own eyes and those of her sister Marlowe, another powerfully drawn character, and through their alternate chapters we learn their innermost thoughts. Marlowe is living in London when the novel opens, a brilliant university student investigating the world of butterflies. She is on the cusp of great things in the scientific world and also in her personal life with boyfriend Olly. Then she hears from her family. Sister Harper needs a new heart and lung, and the Hong Kong doctors refuse to put her on the transplant list because her “disability” precludes her. Harper is dying.
Marlowe has no option but to put her studies on hold and rush to her sister’s side. Back in their childhood home, we begin to learn of what happened to the siblings’ mother and of their father’s quiet struggle. We also meet a host of colourful characters and gain a window on Hong Kong life, complete with its tastes, smells and rituals.
Harper loves her own heart. It’s what makes her unique, and she’s convinced the doctors can fix it as they always have. But Marlowe knows she must do something to save her sister, and her desperate acts take very dangerous turns as the pace of this poignant story steps up, reaching a tear-jerking crescendo.