NOVEMBER 2017 - AudioFile
Three parallel timelines, each with a connection to bees, alternate in this audiobook from Norwegian author Maja Lunde. In near-future China, Tao works as a laborer, hand-pollinating crops following the extinction of bees; in Ohio, 2007, a bee farmer clashes with his son over the son’s chosen career path; and in rural England in the 1850s, a depressed scientist designs a new beehive. The narrators, each reading a different subplot, transition the listener easily between them. This thoroughly researched novel relies heavily on exposition and internal narration, however, and plodding pacing from Joy Osmanski and Steve West, in particular, may have listeners struggling to remain engaged. E.C. © AudioFile 2017, Portland, Maine
Publishers Weekly
09/18/2017
In her first adult novel, Norwegian children’s author Lunde posits an apocalyptic future, weaving together stories on three continents in three different time periods that revolve around honeybees. In 2098, Tao, a human pollinator for fruit trees in a world devoid of bees, struggles along with her husband to make ends meet. She’s is devoted to her three-year-old son, Wei-Wen, who suddenly has a mysterious and catastrophic accident. In 1851, William Savage, a father of eight in Hertfordshire, England, believes he has finally come up with an ingenious design for the perfect beehive, which will not only save the family from financial decline but will also bond him with his only son, Edmund. George, a beekeeper in 2007 Ohio, is desperate to have his son, Tom, take over the family business, even though Tom is pursuing an academic career. George prides himself on his work and the hand-built hives that have been in his family for generations, but everything changes when disaster strikes apiaries across the U.S. As the author adroitly switches back and forth among the intense stories, she explores the link between parents and children, and the delicate balance of expressing parental expectations versus allowing grown children to follow their own passions. There is also the strong theme about the potentially bleak outcome for a world that ignores the warning signs of environmental catastrophe and allows honeybees to disappear. Lunde’s novel provides both a multifaceted story and a convincing and timely wake-up call. (Aug.)
Jean Hegland
As a lover of honeybees and a fan of speculative fiction, I was doubly smitten by The History of Bees. Maja Lunde’s novel is an urgent reminder of how much our survival depends on those remarkable insects. It is also a gripping account of how—despite the cruelest losses—humanity may abide and individual families can heal.
|Los Angeles Times
The History of Bees brings climate change into the realm of book-club fiction. . . . Lunde’s exploration of the tension between human instinct and the need for selflessness couldn’t be more timely.
Jacquelyn Mitchard
When you think of coming to tears over a novel, a story about bee keepers and honey is not your first thought. But such is the genius of debut novelist Maja Lunde that her tale of three eras—the long past, the tenuous present and the biologically damned future—is strung on the fragile hope of the survival of bees. Without ever banging an apocalyptic drum, Lunde paints an achingly pure picture of what happens if we fail to protect the bees, our biospheric conscience, our fragile, sacred spinners of gold.
Laura McBride
"I once sat sheltered while a swarm of bees the size of a house flew over me. I wish readers this same cone of isolated, humming space when they read Maja Lunde’s fine novel The History of Bees. Here is a story that is sweeping in scope but intimate in detail. Stepping lightly between a 19th century British naturalist, a contemporary Ohio bee farmer, and a determined mother in a dystopian future China, Lunde dares to imagine the chaos our rapidly changing world invites, while finding order and hope in individual acts of care."
Minneapolis Star-Tribune
Lunde, a Norwegian author and screenwriter, threads a common string through these characters. The novel becomes far less about bees than about family — about how the relationship between parent and child can be passionate, desperate, tragic and uplifting....The History of Bees is a dark read, and yet it ends on a wavering note of optimism. It’s been likened to Emily St. John Mandel’s 2014 sci-fi novel Station Eleven, with good reason."
BookPage
This book is about bees the same way Moby-Dick is a book about whales or The Moviegoer is about movies.....[The History of Bees] is reminiscent of the 1998 art film The Red Violin, in that it weaves together three fairly disparate stories spread across the better part of two and a half centuries. At the outset, the connections between the three are opaque, but Lunde’s compelling narrative draws the reader in. Much as in Ray Bradbury’s famed story “A Sound of Thunder,” the “butterfly effect” is in full effect, as decisions made long ago and far away influence outcomes in unpredictable but realistic ways.
The New York Times
"Is climate-themed fiction all too real? As scientists’ projections about the effects of climate change have increasingly become reality, some works of apocalyptic fiction have begun to seem all too plausible. Maja Lunde’s first book chronicles three generations as they exploit, try to save and eventually mimic bees."
Elle
Imagine The Leftovers, but with honey.
Lisa See
"The History of Bees is spectacular and deeply moving. Lunde has elegantly woven together a tale of science and science fiction, dystopia and hope, and the trials of the individual and the strengths of family."
Bryn Greenwood
By turns devastating and hopeful, The History of Bees resonates powerfully with our most pressing environmental concerns. Following three separate but interconnected timelines, Lunde shows us the past, the present, and a terrifying future in a riveting story as complex as a honeycomb.
The New York Times
"Is climate-themed fiction all too real? As scientists’ projections about the effects of climate change have increasingly become reality, some works of apocalyptic fiction have begun to seem all too plausible. Maja Lunde’s first book chronicles three generations as they exploit, try to save and eventually mimic bees."
Los Angeles Times
The History of Bees brings climate change into the realm of book-club fiction. . . . Lunde’s exploration of the tension between human instinct and the need for selflessness couldn’t be more timely.
From the Publisher
"Magnificent tale of the importance of bees and the individual."
—Marie L. Kleve
"As the story develops, this book subtly transformes from The History of Bees to Our History."
—Janneken Øverland
"A first-time novelist who is brave enough to spread out a great, epic canvas and in addition brings up a provocative and current topic, is not something you see every day."
—Erika Fatland
Kirkus Reviews
2017-06-20
Three interwoven tales from 1851, 2007, and 2098 tell the story of our dependency on bees.Norwegian author Lunde puts imagination and research to work in this message-driven novel set in a gloomy past, a doomed modernity, and a dystopian future. Nineteenth-century British shopkeeper William Savage suffers from debilitating depression but finally gets out of bed when his children inspire him to try to build a better beehive. In 2007, a stubborn Ohio beekeeper named George desperately tries to interest his more academically oriented son, Tom, in the family business, even as environmental changes begin to impact its operation. In 2098, a young mother named Tao labors with her husband and everyone else in China, standing in the branches of fruit trees pollinating buds by hand. In just three years, her 5-year-old son will also be funneled into this physically debilitating and mindless work. She dreams of giving him an education and a better life, but instead, on their one Day of Rest in six months, he is catastrophically and mysteriously injured, then spirited out of town by the authorities. Tao's quest to find her son and understand what happened to him will ultimately tie the three stories together, as does the theme of the bond between parent and child, one generation to the next. Illuminating if not much fun.
