02453nam a22003618i 4500001001900000003000600019007000300025008004100028020001800069024001800087035002000105035002400125040003800149041001200187100003900199245003500238264003600273300002300309520127900332650003901611650002801650650004401678650004301722650004401765650003501809650003501844650003501879655003301914655002801947942000801975952009301983999001502076991026806116407026UkOxUt|231106s2024 enk 000|f|eng|d a97802419844068 aCIPO000026161 a()9780241984406 a(StEdALDL)1/4380522 aStDuBDSbengcStDuBDSerdadUkOxU aEnglish aMurray, Pauld1975-eauthor92654114aThe bee sting c/ Paul Murray. 1aLondon :bPenguin Books,c2024. a645 pages ;c20 cm aThe 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 and half-heartedly dodging the attentions of fast-talking cattle farmer Big Mike, 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, in debt to local sociopath 'Ears' Moran, is putting the final touches to his grand plan to run away from home. The present is in meltdown, but the causes lie deep in the past. If you wanted to change this story, how far back would you have to go? To the car crash twelve months before Cass was born? To the infamous bee sting which ruined Imelda's wedding day? All the way back to Dickie at ten years old, trembling before his father in the garden, learning how to be a man? Is it possible that a single moment of bad luck set in motion everything that came after? And does that mean the fate of the Barnes family is already sealed? They are facing a reckoning. If they can't change the past, or rewrite the story they have already lived, is it too late for a happy ending? 0aFamiliesvFiction zIreland926545 0aFortunevFiction926542 0aBunkers (Fortification)vFiction926543 0aDysfunctional familiesvFiction924066 0aInterpersonal relationsvFiction924021 0aSocial classesvFiction924096 0aFamily secretsvFiction923679 0aMarried peoplevFiction923930 0aPsychological fiction922456 0aHumorous fiction922906 2lcc 00102lcc4070aTBSbTBSd2025-08-28l0oP-EN MURpB05628r2025-08-28t1w2025-08-28y1 c4887d4887