'Tess Brady moves from the city to the village of Clunes in Victoria's central highlands. Slowly, her own story and that of the village merge, and neither will ever be quite the same again. Tess discovers that Clunes is home to a wonderfully eccentric bunch of locals, and boasts a defiantly singular way of doing things. Before long she finds herself taking part in a duck race in a dried-up creek bed, helping out with the annual grape harvest and hunting for a missing mayoral table. Then, suddenly, the very fabric of the village comes under threat, as government planners decide to turn it into a dank and dreary dormitory suburb for commuters. The situation looks bleak, until Tess and her mates come up with an unlikely counter-plan. Could Clunes be saved by, of all things, a pile of secondhand books? The Noise of Empty Buildings is a tree-change story that enchants and delights - and shows that sometimes the pen really is mightier than the sword.' (Publication summary)
