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| Plot Summary of Somewhere a Bird is Singing |
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"Sally Harrup, an orphan of 17, lives in the Plymouth dockside slums with her sister Ruth. They can barely remember their mother and never knew who their father was. Ruth supports them both by working as a prostitute till she became too ill. Sally gets a job with a local bakery, is befriended by her employers Grace and Alfie Philpott, by fisherman Ethan Shields and his family, and by Captain Eva Cassington, who runs the local Salvation Army refuge and is trying to stamp out the trade in rounding up young girls, sent on Belgian brothel ships for the sex trade in Europe.
Two of the Philpotts' regular customers are closely connected with the ‘trade', and when they learn that Sally has thwarted them in rescuing Rachel, a girl of 11, from them just in time, they are intent on revenge. Sally returns home to find Ruth dead in suspicious circumstances. When tragedy strikes Rachel too, Sally blames herself, and Grace Philpott virtually disowns her. Then Sally discovers her father's identity. After finding papers Ruth would never let her see while she was alive, she goes to confront Robert Sanderson, a butler at nearby Lanhydrock House who tells her she is making it up, and has her arrested on a trumped-up charge of theft.
She is soon released from prison without a stain on her character, but her whole world is gradually collapsing around her. Only the Shields family, Captain Eva, a sympathetic police inspector, and the local chairman of the police authority, stand by her. To show her gratitude, Sally agrees to help take part in Eva's desperate last-ditch attempt to save the girls from the brothel ships.
"
John Van der Kiste, Resident Scholar
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| Review Analysis of Somewhere a Bird is Singing |
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Our unique search engine provides a wealth of detail about books by breaking them down into many different literary elements, all of which are searchable (click here).
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Ratings are on a 1-10 scale (Low to High)
Plot
Tone of book?
- depressed
Time/era of story
- 19th century
Life of a profession:
- prostitute/stripper/porn
Family, loving relations
Yes
Special relationship with
- sister
Crime & Police story
Yes
Story of
- wrongly accused clearing name
Is this an adult or child's book?
- Adult or Young Adult Book
Job/Profession/Status story
Yes
Main Character
Gender
- Female
Profession/status:
- unemployed
Age:
- a teen
Is this an ordinary person caught up in events?
Yes
Ethnicity/Nationality
- British
How sensitive is this character?
- sensitive to others' feelings
Sense of humor
- Mostly serious with occasional humor
Intelligence
- Average intelligence
Physique
- average physique
Main Adversary
Identity:
- an organization
Profession/status:
- mastermind
How much of work is main antagonist actually present in:
- a moderate amount
How sensitive is this character?
- mean, arrogant
Sense of humor
- Mostly serious with occasional humor
Intelligence
- Average intelligence
Physique
- average physique
Setting
How much descriptions of surroundings?
- 6 (an above average amount)
Europe
Yes
European country:
- England/UK
Misc setting
- sewers/subways
Style
Person
- mostly 3rd
Accounts of torture and death?
- moderately detailed references to deaths
Amount of dialog
- roughly even amounts of descript and dialog
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Note: the views expressed here are only those of the reviewer(s). | |
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