The Bee Sting
The Barnes family is falling apart. Dickie's car business is failing, leading him to build an apocalypse bunker, while his wife Imelda sells off her valuables and fends off an admirer. Their teenage daughter Cass is spiraling, and twelve-year-old PJ is contemplating running away. This funny, wise, and poignant novel explores how past events, from a fateful bee sting to a childhood lesson, shape a family's struggle to stay afloat when their world crumbles.
Patriarch of the Barnes family; his once-successful car dealership is failing and he retreats to building an apocalypse bunker in the woods rather than face it.
Dickie and Imelda's teenage daughter, a former top student whose final year of school is derailed by drinking and a fraying friendship.
No. The Bee Sting was one of six books shortlisted for the 2023 Booker Prize, but the prize went to Paul Lynch's Prophet Song. The Bee Sting did go on to win the An Post Irish Book of the Year (and the Novel of the Year category) at the 2023 An Post Irish Book Awards.