The Bee Sting A Novel
The Bee Sting by Paul Murray, published by Farrar, Straus and Giroux on August 15, 2023, is a 656-page novel written in English. This work presents a humorous and insightful exploration of the complexities of family life amid personal and societal turmoil. The narrative centers on the Barnes family, whose members grapple with various challenges, including a failing car business, strained relationships, and the pressures of adolescence.
Readers will find a rich tapestry of themes woven throughout the story, including the dynamics of sibling relationships and the quest for personal integrity in difficult times. The novel delves into pivotal moments that shape the family’s trajectory, such as a fateful bee sting and a car crash, prompting reflections on how past events influence the present. Set against the backdrop of post-crash Ireland, The Bee Sting offers a tragicomic perspective on the struggle to maintain goodness in a world that seems to be unraveling.
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One of The New York Times Top 10 Books of the Year
Winner of the An Post Irish Book of the Year, the Nero Gold Prize, and the Nero Book Award for Fiction
Shortlisted for the Booker Prize and the Writers’ Prize for Fiction
Finalist for the Kirkus Prize for Fiction
One of The New Yorker‘s Essential Reads
One of The Washington Post’s 10 Best Books of the Year
One of TIME’s 10 Best Fiction Books of the Year
A Dua Lipa x Service95 Book Club Pick
From the author of Skippy Dies comes Paul Murray’s The Bee Sting, an irresistibly funny, wise, and thought-provoking tour de force about family, fortune, and the struggle to be a good person when the world is falling apart.
The Barnes family is in trouble. Dickie’s once-lucrative car business is going under—but Dickie is spending his days in the woods, building an apocalypse-proof bunker with a renegade handyman. His wife, Imelda, is selling off her jewelry on eBay and half-heartedly dodging the attention of fast-talking cattle farmer Big Mike, while their teenage daughter, Cass, formerly top of her class, seems determined to binge drink her way through her final exams. As for twelve-year-old PJ, he’s on the brink of running away.
If you wanted to change this story, how far back would you have to go? To the infamous bee sting that ruined Imelda’s wedding day? To the car crash one year before Cass was born? All the way back to Dickie at ten years old, standing in the summer garden with his father, learning how to be a real man?
The Bee Sting, Paul Murray’s exuberantly entertaining new novel, is a tour de force: a portrait of postcrash Ireland, a tragicomic family saga, and a dazzling story about the struggle to be good at the end of the world.
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