The Bee Sting | Paul Murray

SHORTLISTED 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