Name: The History of Bees
Rating: 3.590909090909091 (33 reviews)
ISBN: 9781501161377

Maja Lunde

"In the spirit of Station Eleven and Never Let Me Go, this ... literary debut follows three generations of beekeepers from the past, present, and future, weaving a ... story of their relationship to the bees--and to their children and one another--against the backdrop of an urgent, global crisis"--

A Novel

The History of Bees

Wynter

My copy was provided for free by the publisher through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

If you have patience for slow-burning narrative, or prefer books driven by gradual character development and familial drama, then you'll love this. A story that follows three seemingly disconnected narrators, comments on the real bee crisis, and moves seamlessly through time between historical setting and a futuristic world immediately appealed to me. Because I am an impatient person, I had a hard time waiting for the plot to make sense, however. In addition, once the separate strands finally came together, the payoff was not enough for me. But did I regret reading this hefty tome? Not even a little bit.

Hannah Myhre

Read it in norwegian back in the end of 2015 finished in beginning 2016, and I still think about this book! Absolutely amazing and important, everyone should read this book!

Daryl Houston

This book was ok. I liked the idea, I liked the cross-generational sweep of it, and the writing was perfectly pleasant. Some of the things that I think were maybe supposed to be sort of a surprise toward the end weren't. I suppose it was a hair preachy, more by implication than by direct preaching, and maybe that's even ok -- art can certainly have a purpose beyond the aesthetic.

It took me several days to get through what is really a pretty short and easy book. By contrast, I picked up Jennifer Egan's Manhattan Beach after putting this one down, and the contrast between the two is stark, even when at times they cover similar material (e.g. hesitant intimacy between members of a couple). What I'm finding in Egan that I was missing in Lunde's book (which I'll confess I began skimming partway through as a result) was this hard-t0-define thing that I guess you call style, or that you might call touch in a musical or sporting setting. My daughter has played the cello for a few years now. She can play a song that is recognizable as the song she's playing. She has some sense of dynamics (she'll crescendo and decrescendo when called for, and she'll play staccato or legato as called for), but for example she hasn't mastered vibrato yet. So when she plays, it is undeniably music that she's playing, but it's not capital-M Musical, and it's not as beautiful to listen to as the same song played by a more accomplished musician. This is how I felt about Lunde's book. The pieces are there. It's a book that has the shape and theme and parts and even vaguely the flow of a literary novel, but it just falls short in style or touch or dynamics or whatever. It's basically missing the prose equivalent of vibrato.

Sameer Vasta

I have been, for a few years now, obsessed with bees and the role they play in our ecosystem. When colony collapse disorder started affecting North American bee populations, I was stricken with worry. Maja Lunde’s novel is essentially a book written to stoke my anxiety: what would the world look like if the bees disappeared? What could we have done to avoid this? Sure, the book reads a bit like it was written for children, but the story is an important one for our time.

(originally published on inthemargins.ca)

Renee Blankenship

The History of Bees by Maja Lunde is one of those books that I read and then couldn't stop thinking about. Yes, the cover is absolutely gorgeous (that sparkle!!) but aside from that, the story itself was unforgettable. 

Told in three different time periods, Lunde was able to achieve something extra ordinary in doing so. She wove together a story that made you care for each character, while also appreciating the grander scope of what the story was about: the importance of bees to our world today and our future. Something that I don't think most people realize or fully understand. 

Our three main characters are as follows, William (inventor of the bee hives living in Victorian times), George (a modern day bee farmer struggling to keep his bees alive at the very beginning of the bee "disappearances"), and Tao (a bee pollinator living in a dystopian future where bees have disappeared). Each of these characters struggled with their relationship to bees and it in turn affected the relationships with those around them. My favorite character was Tao, a mother who will stop at nothing to find her child in a world that has all but disappeared along with the bees. 

One of my favorite scenes that Lunde wrote was Tao dragging herself through the empty streets of a mostly empty city thinking of nothing but her child and knowing she will do anything to find him. I was so struck by that scene and the following ones as she found out what had happened to her boy, as well as the final scene which was unexpected and definitely powerful. 

There is much that can be taken from this story, applied to our world today and the affect our relationship with bees will have on future generations. Reading the dystopian story alongside the other two really made the affect more powerful I think, of what a loss of these bees would mean to us as a society and to the world as a whole. 

I am so grateful to Touchstone books for the advance copy I received to review and the final copy as well! Its a book I will keep alongside my other "favorites" and look forward to rereading again someday. (As well as recommending to all of my friends!)

Lina

I would actually give it a 2.5 star rating. The topic of this book is really important and definitely worth to write about. The story (stories) itself however doesn’t have any depth. The writing and the character development something seems kinda dull.

Jeremy Cote

Note: I received this book as an ARC from NetGalley.

I loved this book. Plain and simple. It had a fantastic triple narrative that circled each other throughout the whole novel and merged seamlessly at the end. The characters are what really make this story shine, and there is plenty to love, get mad at, and feel sympathy for with regards to the characters. They are all unique, and it was a pleasure to read this book. Additionally, the greater message of being mindful of the environment is one I hold dear. Overall, a great book.

Signe

Ilona Labská 

Sunky

Kylie Frazer

“Imagine The Leftovers, but with honey” (Elle), and in the spirit of Station Eleven and Never Let Me Go, this “spectacular and deeply moving” (Lisa See, New York Times bestselling author) novel follows three generations of beekeepers from the past, present, and future, weaving a spellbinding story of their relationship to the bees—and to their children and one another—against the backdrop of an urgent, global crisis. England, 1852. William is a biologist and seed merchant, who sets out to build a new type of beehive—one that will give both him and his children honor and fame. United States, 2007. George is a beekeeper fighting an uphill battle against modern farming, but hopes that his son can be their salvation. China, 2098. Tao hand paints pollen onto the fruit trees now that the bees have long since disappeared. When Tao’s young son is taken away by the authorities after a tragic accident, she sets out on a grueling journey to find out what happened to him. Haunting, illuminating, and deftly written, The History of Bees joins “the past, the present, and a terrifying future in a riveting story as complex as a honeycomb” (New York Times bestselling author Bryn Greenwood) that is just as much about the powerful bond between children and parents as it is about our very relationship to nature and humanity.

The History of Bees A Novel

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