Bee Sting

June 2024

Bee Sting by Paul Murray

rom one of our greatest comic novelists and the author of Skippy Dies comes a funny, thought-provoking story of one family desperately clinging on as their world falls apart . . .

'A tragicomic triumph. You won't read a sadder, truer, funnier novel this year' Guardian

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?


Discussion Resources:

Print Reviews:

Guardian

New York Times

New Yorker

Slate

Interviews:

The Art of Reading Bookclub - Irish Fiction Colm Tóibín talks to Paul Murray about his latest novel The Bee Sting

BBC Books and Authors

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I’m a Canadian living in the United Kingdom - London to be exact. I’m a business person with an eye for modern design. I’m a customer marketer who thinks like a customer. I’m a design thinker who also happens to be a designer.

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