The Bee Sting by Paul Murray (2023), published by Penguin
What's it about? The dysfunctional Barnes family are in trouble. Dickie's once-lucrative car business is facing the wall. He ignores the impending fallout by building an apocalypse-proof bunker in the woods. His wife Imelda is selling off her possessions on eBay. Their teenage daughter Cass, formerly top of her class, is binge-drinking her way to her final exams. And twelve-year-old PJ is plotting to run away from home. Where did it all go wrong? Can a single moment of bad luck change the direction of a life?
Why should you read it? Murray weaves together an immersive story of denial set against a familial and climate apocalypse. He brings his customary tragicomic flair to this ambitious and epic saga. Shortlisted for the Booker Prize 2023.
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Listen: Paul Murray talks to Brendan O'Connor
What the critics say: "Murray shows off his formidable range, immersing us in worlds so distinct and textured that they seem to blot one another out—subjectivity and how its wonderful thickness can lead people astray being one of this author's preoccupations." - Katy Waldman, The New Yorker.
The author, on writing… "You can make all the maps and plot outlines you want but it doesn't tell you what the book is. The book doesn’t start speaking back to you, if that’s not too pretentious, until you start writing it. This is somewhat woo-woo but I feel like your conscious mind, in writing, is not your friend. The part of you that’s writing the book is much deeper and you’re trying to tap into stuff that’s not available to you by other means other than putting words on a page. And once you start putting words down, it just goes in directions that you don’t expect."
For readers of… The Corrections, Jonathan Franzen; A Family Daughter, Maile Meloy; Prophet Song, Paul Lynch.
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