The Bee Sting by Paul Murray

The 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 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 is putting the final touches to his grand plan to run away from home.

Where did it all go wrong? A patch of ice on the tarmac, a casual favour to a charming stranger, a bee caught beneath a bridal veil?Can a single moment of bad luck change the direction of a life? And if the story has already been written - is there still time to find a happy ending?

Hardback
Publication: 8 June 2023, Penguin, Hamish Hamilton 
ISBN: 9780241353950
Extent: 656 pages