About the Book:

Irresistibly funny, wise and thought-provoking, The Bee Sting is a 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 dealership is going under, and while his wife is frantically selling off her jewellery on eBay, he’s busy building an apocalypse-proof bunker in the woods. Meanwhile their teenage daughter is veering off the rails, in thrall to a toxic friendship, and her little brother is falling into the black hole of the internet.

Where did it all go wrong? The present is in crisis, but the causes lie deep in the past. How long can this unhappy family wait before they have to face the truth? And if the story has already been written, is there still time to find a happy ending?

Published by Penguin

Released June 2023

My Thoughts:

The Bee Sting is a massive, incredible, absorbing family drama, an absolute door stopper that is worth the effort. I listened to it, and it’s the longest audio book I’ve ever committed to, more than 25 hours long, and while I approached it with trepidation, I ended up devouring it at every opportunity. This novel is so brilliant, I have ordered a paperback copy because I feel like I need to read it again, that’s how much I loved it. And given that I recently broke up with big books, this says volumes.

As you all know, I am partial to *obsessed with* Irish fiction. The Bee Sting is incredibly Irish, and listening to it was a real treat as there wasn’t just one narrator, no, there was a cast of them, a different narrator for each character perspective. As far as audio books go, this one was exceptional. I expect that the Irishness would come across just as strongly reading it as well. It’s all in the language and fluidity of the narrative.

The story itself is complex and many layered. The way Paul Murray crafted this story though was incredible. Each perspective gives us more details to the overall picture of the characters, the present situation, the family history, and as is expected, each perspective offers an alternative view on what’s been going on, past and present. What I really picked out though, was the many ways in which Paul Murray created these instances of six degrees of separation between so many of the characters, the bit players along with the majors and the minors. There were so many times when I went, “oh, that must be so and so and that’s why this is happening, or, oh, is that so and so? Oh my goodness, it is! Etc, etc.” I want to give examples, but I abhor spoilers, so I can only leave it at that. Those who have read this know what I mean.

Two things I want to say in wrapping this up. The moment of realisation about the ‘bee sting’ on the wedding day – that was levelling. I can honestly say that Imelda was my favourite character, and this just cemented it. The other thing, I’m not happy with the ending, in that, it was not conclusive enough for me. I wanted more, if only just to tell me that I was wrong in what I think was about to happen, because left the way it was, with my mind processing the ending the way it has, is too much for me. I want to be proven wrong. And on the ending, there is this full circle aspect, that links it with the very beginning. Where Cass and Elaine were discussing the news about a tragedy with a family a few towns over and how could something like that happen…indeed, how does something like that happen?! Such a clever, clever novel.