In this stark and unsparing coming-of-age story, the shy and intelligent Joel watches helplessly as his alcoholic and abusive paramedic father spirals ever downward and out of control. Joel’s life crumbles further when his older brother, disturbed by the drunken violence inflicted on their mother, flees their home seemingly for good. Convinced he must track down his brother and bring him back home if he is to survive in this lonely and frightening new reality, Joel’s awareness of his father’s workplace experiences gradually begins to expand as he starts to appreciate the many issues faced by first responders, even as he begins to doubt that he himself will escape the chaos of his recently shattered world. In Somewhere There’s Music, the reader is immersed in a young man’s struggle and desperate search to find what’s left of his family.

While he has worked as a paramedic and as a captain with the fire service, Sean Paul Bedell has been writing and publishing for more than 30 years. He lives in Dartmouth with his wife Lisa, and Somewhere There’s Music is his first novel.

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