June Book Club: ‘The Bee Sting’ by Paul Murray

You voted and June Book Club's Official Pick is....The Bee Sting by Paul Murray

• 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 the author of Skippy Dies comes Paul Murray's The Bee Sting, 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.

Synopsis: The Barnes family is in trouble. Dickie’s once-lucrative car business is going under―but Dickie is 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 and half-heartedly dodging the attention of fast-talking cattle farmer Big Mike, while their teenage daughter, Cass, formerly top of her class, seems determined to binge drink her way through her final exams. As for twelve-year-old PJ, he’s on the brink of running away. If you wanted to change this story, how far back would you have to go? To the infamous bee sting that ruined Imelda’s wedding day? To the car crash one year before Cass was born? All the way back to Dickie at ten years old, standing in the summer garden with his father, learning how to be a real man? Amazon Link.

Book Details
Published: August 15, 2023
Page Count: 656 Pages
Audiobook: 26 hours, 10 minutes

Further Reading and Viewing

• The New Yorker - The Bee Sting: A Family Saga of Desperation and Denial
• The Booker Prizes - Interview with Paul Murray "If a book is gripping, then you don't care about the page count"
• VIDEO - Service95 Dua Lipa in Conversation with Author Paul Murray
• VIDEO - Paul Murray's Book Talk at Politics & Prose Bookstore

NOTE: This is a very long book. Longer than "All the Colors of the Dark" but not as long as "A Little Life". So, please don't fret if you don't finish it. Come anyways to book club and enjoy the good company and wine.

LOCATION: Mise En Place
COST: $25 per person, guided curated wine tasting to match theme of the book. Includes charcuterie to share. Fee paid directly to Lynn, the owner at time of tasting.