The Bee Sting by Paul Murray
Summer kicked off with the house to myself for the first time in a while, I sank into four uninterrupted hours of The Bee Sting—tearing through the last 200 pages of this brilliant, emotionally layered novel. Told through the shifting perspectives of a modern Irish family, it’s a darkly funny, quietly devastating exploration of hope, regret, and survival. Naturally, it landed on the New York Times 10 Best Books of 2023.
I’m still reflecting on how Paul Murray unravels both the large and small dramas of the Barnes family—set against the backdrop of the 2008 recession, the turbulence of puberty, and the quiet stress and isolation of family life. The novel moves with a long gaze backward, illuminating the personal, pivotal moments that shaped each character. And I especially loved how Murray seamlessly weaves nature into the story—it’s subtle but ever-present, almost like a character of its own.
