#46 The Bee Sting, by Paul Murray

 



Booker Prize:  Shortlisted 2023

Plot Time and Place:  Ireland, present day

Opening sentence: "In the next town over, a man had killed his family".

Plot summary: "Clocking in at more than 600 pages, it is the story of a well-to-do Irish family in financial, emotional and existential trouble: Dickie Barnes, who has taken over his father’s car showroom; his wife Imelda, a local beauty; daughter Cassie, preparing for university; and 12-year-old son PJ. The after-effects of the financial crash have crippled the motor business, and now that the money and the good times have run out, Dickie hides away in local woods, building a shelter against the collapse of civilisation while Imelda furiously eBays their possessions. Cassie fears for her future; PJ fears divorce. We see the same few months through the eyes of each in turn, during floods and drought, as slow‑building ecological disaster parallels the family’s own unfolding apocalypse."

(by Justine Jordan in The Guardian)

Review: This was a pleasure to read. Funny and sad. You hardly notice the 700 pages. I loved the characters, the impending doom, the circularity of the story, the clues planted along the way, the fatality, the characters' premonitions, and the alternating of the various characters' points of view.

"You won’t read a sadder, truer, funnier novel this year." (by Justine Jordan in The Guardian)

Rating: 4/5


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