The Secret Life of Bees

Format:	Paperback 384 pages

10+ in stock

Usually despatched within 24 hours

RRP £7.99

£4.79

You save: £3.20

Delivered FREE
in the UK

Add to wish list

About this book
Bookseller reviews
Customer reviews

Synopsis

Lily has grown up believing she accidentally killed her mother when she was four. She not only has her own memory of holding the gun, but her father's account of the event. Now fourteen, she yeams for her mother, and for forgiveness. Living on a peach farm in South Carolina with her father, she has only one friend: Rosaleen, a black servant whose sharp exterior hides a tender heart. South Carolina in the sixties is a place where segregation is still considered a cause worth fighting for. When racial tension explodes one summer afternoon, and Rosaleen is arrested and beaten, Lily is compelled to act. Fugitives from justice and from Lily's harsh and unyielding father, they follow a trail left by the woman who died ten years before. Finding sanctuary in the home of three beekeeping sisters, Lily starts a journey as much about her understanding of the world, as about the mystery surrounding her mother.

Book details

Published
03/03/2003

Publisher
Headline Review

ISBN
9780747266839

Publisher and industry reviews

Jacket review

'Kidd's first novel is well placed, gentle and deeply moving' The Times -- The Times 20030308

UK Kirkus review

Fourteen-year-old Lily is growing up in 1960s South Carolina, trying to come to terms with the knowledge that aged only four she accidentally shot and killed her own mother. Growing up with only her tyrannical father and a black servant called Rosaleen, Lily pines for her mother and is tormented by guilt. She develops a strange fascination with the bees which creep out of her bedroom wall at night bees which soon become a link between her present, past and future. One day Lily ends up rescuing Rosaleen from a racist incident, and they leave home with only a few remaining items that belonged to Lily's dead mother. These possessions lead them to meet and move in with a family of three black bee-keeping sisters, with whom Lily and Rosaleen develop a close relationship, finding acceptance and love that Lily never experienced as a child. With the help of time and the sisters, Lily learns more about herself, the mystery of her past and the world at large. As the story unfolds she begins to overcome the guilt and unhappiness that she has always suffered. The novel demonstrates that tragic childhood circumstances can still result in love, friendship and happiness. The theme of bees and bee-keeping provides a delightful and unusual undertone. (Kirkus UK)