Telling the Bees

January 1, 2013
Friendship between two beekeepers leads to tragedy. Elderly bachelor Albert Honig has lived in a California orange grove all his life, tending to several beehives. The neighborhood around him is gradually changing as farmland gives way to freeways and strip malls. The routine he has cultivated, imparted long ago by his own father, is comforting, until one day in 1992, it is disrupted when he discovers the bodies of his next-door neighbors, murdered, it appears, during a botched robbery. The victims, Hilda and Claire Straussman, sisters known as the Bee Ladies, are also lifelong residents of the area, and perhaps their bodies would have been discovered earlier had Albert not been estranged from them for the past 11 years. The estrangement becomes the central quandary of the novel, which weaves back and forth in time, exploring the longstanding but forever unacknowledged attachment between contemplative Albert and sylphlike, mercurial Claire. Bee lore, grounded equally in modern science and ancient tradition, is interspersed throughout, positing the life of the hive as a template for a human family. As Albert is interrogated by a suitably sardonic police detective, his circumspect narration raises other mysteries besides the identity of the culprits: What happened to turn Hilda into a taciturn hulk? Who inflicted the bruises on teenage Claire's neck? What accounts for 20-something Claire's long stay in Alabama, after which she returned with an infant? That infant, David Gilbert, supposedly abandoned by a relative to be raised by the Straussmans, will, in turn, become estranged from the Bee Ladies--based on the same incident which severed Albert's connection with them. Someone is eventually convicted of the murders, but a question remains: Was this truly a random tragedy or one as inevitable as a bee colony's collapse? The sheer oddness of Albert's world contributes to a sense of creeping dread, and his ornate diction successfully conveys his archaic sensibility, with occasional lapses in clarity. An intermittently arcane but undeniably original debut.

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October 15, 2012

Like his father and his grandfather, unmarried octogenarian Albert Honig keeps bees, getting along with them much better than he does with humans. But when his friend Claire is killed in a burglary gone awry, Albert starts to ponder her past and their tentative relationship. Lovely for book clubs.

Copyright 2012 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

February 1, 2013
Octogenarian Albert Honig, a quiet, unassuming bachelor, has always lived a quiet, unassuming life. He's incredibly attuned to the workings of the beehives he keeps in his sunny Southern California backyard, and their buzzing inhabitants are his closest companions. Although he doesn't care for most of his neighbors, he has remained on good terms with his next-door neighbors, sisters Claire and Hilda Straussman. Then Albert discovers that the Straussman sisters have been murdered. As the investigation swirls around him, Albert pieces together his memories of Claire and Hilda and finds that he may not have known his neighbors as well as he thought. A story of shared history, secrets of omission, and revisited memories, Telling the Bees is nostalgic and hauntingly poetic. Richly detailed and sparsely populated, Hesketh's debut novel relies on Albert's depth of narration and an enlightening amount of apiology. Reminiscent of the work of Karen Joy Fowler and Peter Orner, Telling the Bees reminds readers that even quiet hives are deceptively active, as Albert's foggy memories may unravel the mysterious life and untimely death of the Straussman sisters.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2013, American Library Association.)

Starred review from February 1, 2013

Narrator Albert Honig is a beekeeper who has lived his 80-plus years in the same house, content with his solitude, his routines, and his bees. When he discovers the two elderly sisters next door have been murdered in their home, he is forced to relive memories he has suppressed for decades, retracing his 70-year friendship with them in search of the reason they were killed. Gradually, he finds the courage to face the guilt, happiness, pain, and love he has been avoiding for years. VERDICT Reminiscent of Marilynne Robinson's Gilead, Hesketh's debut explores family secrets and end-of-life reflections. The author's exceptional storytelling skills allow us not only to understand Albert's feelings, but to experience those emotions right along with him. Readers in search of a heartfelt, thought-provoking novel will find what they are looking for in this journey through the life of an unassuming apiarist who knows more about his reclusive neighbors than anyone could guess. [See Prepub Alert, 9/27/12.]--Katie Wernz, Powell, OH

Copyright 2013 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.