The Bee Sting

From the author of Skippy Dies, 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 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 jewelry on eBay, while their teenage daughter, Cass, formerly top of her class, seems determined to binge-drink her way through her final exams. And twelve-year-old PJ is putting the final touches on his grand plan to run away from home.

Where did it all go wrong? A patch of ice on the tarmac, a casual favor 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?

About the Author

Paul Murray was born in 1975 in Dublin. He is the author of three novels, including An Evening of Long Goodbyes, which was short-listed for the Whitbread First Novel Award and the Kerry Group Irish Fiction Award. Skippy Dies (2010) was longlisted for the Booker Prize and was a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award. The Mark and the Void (2015) was joint winner of the Bollinger Everyman Wodehouse prize and was named one of Time’s Top 10 Fiction Books of the year.