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Today is Christmas Eve.
Today is my birthday.
Today I am fifteen.
Today I buried my parents in the backyard.
Neither of them were beloved.
Marnie and her little sister, Nelly, are on their own now. Only they know what happened to their parents, Izzy and Gene, and they aren't telling. While life in Glasgow's Maryhill housing estate isn't grand,… (more)
Today is Christmas Eve.
Today is my birthday.
Today I am fifteen.
Today I buried my parents in the backyard.
Neither of them were beloved.
Marnie and her little sister, Nelly, are on their own now. Only they know what happened to their parents, Izzy and Gene, and they aren't telling. While life in Glasgow's Maryhill housing estate isn't grand, the girls do have each other. Besides, it's only a year until Marnie will be considered an adult and can legally take care of them both.
As the New Year comes and goes, Lennie, the old man next door, realizes that his young neighbors are alone and need his help. Or does he need theirs? Lennie takes them in—feeds them, clothes them, protects them—and something like a family forms. But soon enough, the sisters' friends, their teachers, and the authorities start asking tougher questions. As one lie leads to another, dark secrets about the girls' family surface, creating complications that threaten to tear them apart.
Written with fierce sympathy and beautiful precision, told in alternating voices, The Death of Bees is an enchanting, grimly comic tale of three lost souls who, unable to answer for themselves, can answer only for one another.
Publisher: HarperCollins (January 02, 2013)
Page count: 320 pages
File size: 734 KB
Protection: DRM
Language: English
I thought The Death Of Bees was going to be a dark book, focusing mainly on the death and burial of Izzy and Gene, but it was a much more touching tale of three lost people clinging to one another to create their own unique family unit.
San Francisco Bay Area and California Books News — — SFGate : 'The Death of Bees,' by Lisa O'Donnell (February 08, 2013)Wild, witty and as funny as it is unsettling, "The Death of Bees" is really about both the strength of sisters, the sparkle of imagination and how even the most motley of half lives can somehow coalesce into a shining whole.
Picky Girl: I read. I teach. I blog. (pickily) : Review: The Death of Bees by Lisa O’Donnell (January 24, 2013)The Death of Bees will and should shock you, but it should also make you question who exactly should be reviled and how we can live in a world where children would rather bury their own parents in the dark of night than face the alternative.
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