The Bee Sting

Author(s): Paul Murray

Location(s): Ireland

Genre(s): Fiction

Era(s): Contemporary

Irresistibly funny, wise and thought-provoking – a tragicomic tour de force about family, fortune, and the struggle to be a good person when the world is falling apart…

‘It’s a thing of beauty, a novel that will fill your heart’ Observer

‘I experienced every possible human emotion while reading The Bee Sting… Its ambition and scale are astonishing. A remarkable feat of storytelling’ Mark O’Connell

The Barnes family is in trouble. Dickie’s once-lucrative car business is going under – but rather than face the music, he’s spending his days in the woods, building an apocalypse-proof bunker with a renegade handyman. His wife Imelda is selling off her jewellery on eBay while their teenage daughter Cass, formerly top of her class, seems determined to binge-drink her way to her final exams. And twelve-year-old PJ is putting the final touches to his grand plan to run away from home.

Where did it all go wrong? A patch of ice on the tarmac, a casual favour to a charming stranger, a bee caught beneath a bridal veil – can a single moment of bad luck change the direction of a life? And if the story has already been written – is there still time to find a happy ending?

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