Ellie and the Harpmaker

By: Hazel Prior

Narrated by: Katharine Lee McEwan, Philip Battley

A rich, heartwarming, and charming debut novel that reminds us that sometimes you find love in the most unexpected places.

Dan Hollis lives a happy, solitary life carving exquisite Celtic harps in his barn in the countryside of the English moors. Here, he can be himself, away from social situations that he doesn’t always get right or completely understand.

On the anniversary of her beloved father’s death, Ellie Jacobs takes a walk in the woods and comes across Dan’s barn. She is enchanted by his collection. Dan gives her a harp made of cherrywood to match her cherry socks. He stores it for her, ready for whenever she’d like to take lessons.

Ellie begins visiting Dan almost daily and quickly learns that he isn’t like other people. He makes her sandwiches precisely cut into triangles and repeatedly counts the (17) steps of the wooden staircase to the upstairs practice room. Ellie soon realizes Dan isn’t just different; in many ways, his world is better, and he gives her a fresh perspective on her own life.

©2019 Hazel Prior (P)2019 Penguin Audio

Critic reviews

“How I loved this book! An uncommonly lovely story told with elegance, insight, and so much heart. Hazel Prior’s brilliant debut will delight.” (Kristan Higgins, New York Times best-selling author of Good Luck With That)

"A beautiful love song of a story, wonderfully told with a warm heart and much hope. Hazel Prior’s writing is a lyrical delight.” (Phaedra Patrick, international best-selling author of The Curious Charms of Arthur Pepper)

“Prior’s debut resonates with a clear voice, depicting love evolving from a friendship based upon genuine acts of kindness.... Ellie and Dan, both delightful, down-to-earth characters, selflessly put each other’s needs ahead of their own, and fans of fast-paced romantic stories will enjoy watching them discover true happiness together." (Publishers Weekly)

Nice for St. Patty's

I found the character of Fan to be too similar to the boy in, "Curious Incident of a Dog in Nighttime." I found Ellie to be too sappy and unsurprising. It's a sweet story, and helped bring in the St. Patty's Day spirit, but I'm not in love. The voice characters' accents were appealing.

Delightful read!

I would read this book all over again! Such a delightful read the narration is perfect…!

Life is what we make of it.

Sweet story. I really liked Dan. He reminded me of my grandson. A pleasant read.

Highly recommended!

If you liked Eleanor Oliphant. then this is for you!!!
A great narration, especially the Dan chapters.

A Charming Delight

A wonderful listen and perfectly Narrated as well. I’ll look for more of this authors work.

Lovely Every Which Way

This is a lovely story (...been reading some heavy stuff, including the news...). Well written, lovely metaphors and for myself I sensed the manipulation early on of Clive, having lived through it. Character development is essential to a good story - even a romance - and this is beautifully done. Wish I could live in Exmoor - with the forests and the ponies. (...been there only to visit...)
Enjoy!

Kind, thoughtful, romantic yet realistic

This is by far one of the loveliest novels I have ever read. The development of characters, along side the audio depiction, paired to make this a 5-star winner! Sensitive without being cliche! A worthwhile read!

excellent in every way

I just loved it. Beautiful in every dimension . A true gem of a book.

Sweet story

I can’t imagine reading this book, because Philip Battley really created the quirks of Dan, and I don’t think that might’ve been captured as well in my own imagination.

I LOVED this!!

This book was so good. I am a violin luthier and have my own harp that I'm going to fix up and learn to play. I would love to be a harp luthier as well. This book was so cute in the beginning. It got fairly dark, which I wasn't expecting. I am a domestic violence survivor and would have appreciated something about Clive's character in the description so that wasn't sprung on me, but I still enjoyed the book immensely. The way Ellie reacted towards Clive is very typical for victims of abuse. She is not weak or timid, she was abused. That may be hard for people to understand if they haven't been through it themselves (which I'm glad they haven't experienced it and I hope they never do).

I shared it in my harp groups on Facebook so other harpist would find it and give it a listen. The narrators were amazing. I'm definitely going to listen to more from Hazel Prior and the narrators.