The Bee Sting

The Barnes family is in trouble. Dickie’s once-lucrative car business is going under- but Dickie is spending his days in the woods, building an apocalypse-proof bunker with a renegade handyman. His wife, Imelda, is selling off her jewelry on eBay and half-heartedly dodging the attention of fast-talking cattle farmer Big Mike, while their teenage daughter, Cass, formerly top of her class, seems determined to binge drink her way through her final exams. As for twelve-year-old PJ, he’s on the brink of running away.

If you wanted to change this story, how far back would you have to go? To the infamous bee sting that ruined Imelda’s wedding day? To the car crash one year before Cass was born? All the way back to Dickie at ten years old, standing in the summer garden with his father, learning how to be a real man?

Reader Fit: A rewarding read for those who enjoy ambitious literary fiction that explores family relationships, emotional complexity, and the ways ordinary lives are shaped by extraordinary pressures.

Why We Carry It: We carry The Bee Sting because it offers a compassionate look at how economic hardship, family expectations, grief, and personal secrets shape the choices people make. By inhabiting multiple perspectives within one family, it invites readers to approach even deeply flawed people with greater empathy and understanding.