The Bee Sting

'A tragicomic triumph. You won't read a sadder, truer, funnier novel this year' Guardian

'It's a thing of beauty, a novel that will fill your heart' Observer

'Hugely entertaining, vivid, ambitious and expansive . . . Murray is a natural storyteller' Irish Times

'An expansive and blackly funny tale' Tanya Sweeney, Irish Independent

Irresistibly funny, wise and thought-provoking, The Bee Sting is a tour de force about family, fortune, and the struggle to be a good person when the world is falling apart . . .

The Barnes family is in trouble. Dickie's once-lucrative car business is going under - but rather than face the music, he's spending his days in the woods, building an apocalypse-proof bunker with a renegade handyman. His wife Imelda is selling off her jewellery on eBay while their teenage daughter Cass, formerly top of her class, seems determined to binge-drink her way to her final exams. And twelve-year-old PJ is putting the final touches to his grand plan to run away from home.

Where did it all go wrong? A patch of ice on the tarmac, a casual favour to a charming stranger, a bee caught beneath a bridal veil - can a single moment of bad luck change the direction of a life? And if the story has already been written - is there still time to find a happy ending?