The Bee Sting

WINNER OF THE NERO BOOK AWARD FOR FICTION 2023 WINNER OF AN POST IRISH BOOK OF THE YEAR 2023 SHORTLISTED FOR THE BOOKER PRIZE 2023 SHORTLISTED FOR THE WRITERS’ PRIZE FOR FICTION 2024 ONE OF SARAH JESSICA PARKER’S BEST BOOKS OF 2023 Book of the Year 2023 according to New York Times, New Yorker, The Sunday Times, The Economist, Observer, Guardian, Washington Post, Lit Hub, TIME magazine, Irish Times, The Oldie, Daily Mail, i Paper, Independent, The Standard, The Times, Kirkus, Daily Express, City A.M. 'A tragicomic triumph. You won't read a sadder, truer, funnier novel this year' Guardian The Barnes family are in trouble. Until recently they ran the biggest business in town, now they’re teetering on the brink of bankruptcy – and that’s just the start of their problems. Dickie and Imelda’s marriage is hanging by a thread; straight-A student Cass is careening off the rails; PJ is hopelessly in debt to the school bully. Meanwhile the ghosts of old mistakes are rising out of the past to meet them, but everyone’s too wrapped up in the present to see the danger looming . . . 'Generous, immersive, sharp-witted and devastating; the sort of novel that becomes a friend for life' Financial Times ‘Paul Murray [is] the undisputed reigning champion of epic Irish tragicomedy’ Spectator ‘An instant classic’ Washington Post ‘[An] astute, remorselessly funny novel’ Daily Mirror ‘A wagyu steak of a novel . . . A classic in the mode of The Corrections’ The Times