The Bee Sting

LONGLISTED FOR THE BOOKER PRIZE 2023. From 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 finest novel that Murray has yet written. will surely be one of the books of 2023’. Sunday Independent. 'Murray is a natural storyteller. Ambitious, expansive, hugely entertaining tragicomic fiction'. Irish Times. 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. 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. '. It's a thing of beauty, a novel that will fill your heart'. Observer. ‘Generous, immersive, sharp-witted and devastating. a triumph’. Financial Times. ‘It's been compared to Jonathan Franzen's The Corrections. ; I'd argue it's better’. Daily Mail.