Description

One of The New York Times’ Top 10 Books of the Year
Winner of the An Post Irish Book of the Year, the Nero Gold Prize, and the Nero Book Award for Fiction
Shortlisted for the Booker Prize and the Writers’ Prize for Fiction
Finalist for the Kirkus Prize for Fiction
One of The New Yorker’s Essential Reads
One of The Washington Post’s 10 Best Books of the Year
One of TIME’s 10 Best Fiction Books of the Year
A Dua Lipa x Service95 Book Club Pick

From Paul Murray, the acclaimed author of *Skippy Dies*, comes *The Bee Sting*, a darkly funny, insightful, and deeply compelling novel about family, fate, and the challenge of doing the right thing in an unraveling world.

The Barnes family is struggling. Dickie’s once-thriving car business is failing, yet he spends his time in the woods, constructing a doomsday bunker with an eccentric handyman. His wife, Imelda, secretly sells her jewelry online while halfheartedly fending off the advances of fast-talking cattle farmer Big Mike. Their teenage daughter, Cass, once an academic star, seems intent on drinking her way through her final exams, while twelve-year-old PJ is teetering on the edge of running away.

But where did it all begin? Was it the bee sting that turned Imelda’s wedding day into chaos? The car accident that occurred before Cass was born? Or does it all trace back to Dickie as a ten-year-old boy, standing in a summer garden with his father, learning what it means to be a man?

Blending sharp humor with deep emotion, *The Bee Sting* is a sweeping, masterful novel—a portrait of post-crash Ireland, a tragicomic family saga, and a brilliantly crafted exploration of what it means to be good in a world on the brink.