The Bee Sting
Paul Murray
Irresistibly funny, wise and thought-provoking – a tragicomic tour de force about family, fortune, and the struggle to be a good person when the world is in meltdown…
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 exasperated wife Imelda is selling off her jewellery on eBay and half-heartedly dodging the attentions of fast-talking cattle farmer Big Mike, 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, in debt to local sociopath ‘Ears’ Moran, 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 road, 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?
Paul Murray was born in Dublin in 1975 and is the award-winning author of An Evening of Long Goodbyes, Skippy Dies and The Mark and the Void.
At what age did you know you wanted to become a writer?
As far back as I can remember. I didn’t really distinguish between reading stories and writing them. One seemed the natural extension of the other.
What was your favourite childhood book?
Recently I re-read The Neverending Story by Michael Ende, a really rich, complex fantasy novel, unfairly overshadowed by the admittedly excellent Limahl single.
Which is your favourite book of recent years?
Impossible to pick just one! I came very late to Ishiguro, and it’s been pretty mind-blowing making my way through his novels. I love Elena Ferrante’s Neapolitan quartet. Magda Szabo’s The Door. Gamelife by Michael Clune. Milkman. Hurricane Season. My Life As A Russian Novel. Measuring the World. A hundred others.
What three books would you take to your Desert Island?
Proust, obviously. Nancy Mitford. Maybe something about how to cook bugs.
What is your ‘if you don’t like this, you can’t be my friend’ book?
I would never discriminate against someone for not liking a book. It’s the books people do like that really make me think differently about them. But rarely to the point of actual enmity.
Who or what have been your most important influences?
“Influences” is kind of a misleading word – the writers that have mattered the most to me are the ones whose voices are so completely their own I could never dream of imitating them. That’s the most important lesson you need to learn as a writer, I suppose – that the only way you’re ever going to do anything worthwhile is by divorcing yourself from your influences and working out a voice for yourself.
Which of the other shortlisted titles are you most excited to read?
I’ve read several of them, but none of the poetry, so I’d like to remedy that.
If you weren’t a writer, what would you be doing?
I genuinely shudder to think. I have this awful fear I might be doing something with my hands – like maybe I’d be a really bad carpenter, or a dentist who tried very hard but nevertheless caused immense suffering.
