Description
Book SynopsisA QUEEN'S READING ROOM PICK 2023
The multi-million-copy bestseller. A New York Times bestseller for over two years. Long-listed for the Orange Prize.
Trade ReviewMoving, original, and accomplished ... wonderfully written, powerful, poignant, and humorous, and takes a line which is -
refreshingly - strongly female without being cliche-feminist. It is also
deliciously eccentric, which lifts it out of the usual category of a rite-of-passage novel into the realms of real distinction.
Do read it * Joanna Trollope *
Charming, funny, moving and unmistakeably from the American South... a story that whips together
heat, violence, eccentricity, madness and the Gothic * The Times *
This is a
wonderful book, by turns funny, sad, full of incident and
shot through with grown-up magic reminiscent of Joanne Harris. * The Daily Telegraph *
Eccentric, inventive, and
ultimately forgiving... a truly
original Southern voice * Anita Shreve *
Monk Kidd has created
a narrative as skilful and sweet as a honeycomb.
Uplifting and warm-hearted, this is a
moving novel and
Lily is a fascinating, funny and clever narrator * Literary Review *
Sue Monk Kidd...
Illuminates what is beautiful... THE SECRET LIFE OF BEES is
a gift, filled with hope * Luanne Rice *
This is the story of
a young girl's journey toward healing, and of finding, at its end, not only wholeness, but the
intrinsic sacredness of living in the world. I think it is
simply wonderful * Anne Rivers Siddons *
A
wonderfully written debut novel * Kirkus Reviews *
With imagination as
lush and colorful as the American South, a clutch of
deliciously eccentric characters, and
vivid prose, Sue Monk Kidd creates a
rich, maternal haven in a harsh world * Christina Schwarz *
As original as its title and rivetingly so... It is
one of the most inventive books I have read in a long time, and
utterly compelling... This book
demands to be read again and again, for it is not so much the solving of the mystery that is compulsive, but the
gentle, sensitive, humorous and intensely colourful creation of a world far from our own * Oxford Times *
Sue Monk Kidd has written a
wonderful novel about mothers and daughters and the
transcendent power of love * Connie May Fowler *
Lily is a
wonderfully petulant and self-absorbed adolescent, and Kidd deftly portrays her
sense of injustice as it expands to
accomodate broader social evils...August and her sisters, June and May, are no mere vehicles for Lily's salvation; they are
individuals as fully imagined as the sweltering, kudzu-carpeted landscape that surrounds them * New York Times Book Review *
What a
splendid novel! It's
wonderfully thoughtful and
sensitive and
compulsively readable * Susan Isaacs *
An incredibly
original and imaginative book with great
charm and atmosphere * Glasgow Evening Times *
A
wonderful modern fairy tale...a
touching story with a
memorable cast of characters * The Big Issue *
A hive's worth of a
ppealing female characters, an
off-beat plot and a
lovely style...
Deeply satisfying * Publishers Weekly *
A honey-sweet novel * Elle *
Superb * Woman & Home *
Maybe it is true that there are no perfect books, but I closed this one believing that I had found perfection. The
language is never anything short of crystalline and inspired. The
plotting is subtle and
careful and
exquisitely executed...The
characters are lovable and deep-hearted, fully dimensional, never pat.
The story endures long after the book is slipped back onto the shelf * Book magazine *
I am amazed that this
moving, original, and accomplished book is a first novel. It is
wonderfully written, powerful, poignant, and humorous, and takes a line which is -
refreshingly - strongly female without being cliche-feminist. It is also
deliciously eccentric, which lifts it out of the usual category of a rite-of-passage novel into the realms of real distinction.
Do read it * Joanna Trollope *
Charming, funny, moving and unmistakeably from the American South... a story that whips together
heat, violence, eccentricity, madness and the Gothic * The Times *
Lily is a
wonderfully petulant and self-absorbed adolescent, and Kidd deftly portrays her
sense of injustice as it expands to
accomodate broader social evils...August and her sisters, June and May, are no mere vehicles for Lily's salvation; they are
individuals as fully imagined as the sweltering, kudzu-carpeted landscape that surrounds them * New York Times Book Review *
This is a
wonderful book, by turns funny, sad, full of incident and
shot through with grown-up magic reminiscent of Joanne Harris. * The Daily Telegraph *
Eccentric, inventive, and
ultimately forgiving... a truly
original Southern voice * Anita Shreve *
Sue Monk Kidd...
Illuminates what is beautiful... THE SECRET LIFE OF BEES is
a gift, filled with hope * Luanne Rice *
This is the story of
a young girl's journey toward healing, and of finding, at its end, not only wholeness, but the
intrinsic sacredness of living in the world. I think it is
simply wonderful * Anne Rivers Siddons *
A
wonderfully written debut novel * Kirkus Reviews *
With imagination as
lush and colorful as the American South, a clutch of
deliciously eccentric characters, and
vivid prose, Sue Monk Kidd creates a
rich, maternal haven in a harsh world * Christina Schwarz *
As original as its title and rivetingly so... It is
one of the most inventive books I have read in a long time, and
utterly compelling... This book
demands to be read again and again, for it is not so much the solving of the mystery that is compulsive, but the
gentle, sensitive, humorous and intensely colourful creation of a world far from our own * Oxford Times *
Sue Monk Kidd has written a
wonderful novel about mothers and daughters and the
transcendent power of love * Connie May Fowler *
What a
splendid novel! It's
wonderfully thoughtful and
sensitive and
compulsively readable * Susan Isaacs *
Monk Kidd has created
a narrative as skilful and sweet as a honeycomb.
Uplifting and warm-hearted, this is a
moving novel and
Lily is a fascinating, funny and clever narrator * Literary Review *
An incredibly
original and imaginative book with great
charm and atmosphere * Glasgow Evening Times *
A
wonderful modern fairy tale...a
touching story with a
memorable cast of characters * The Big Issue *
A hive's worth of a
ppealing female characters, an
off-beat plot and a
lovely style...
Deeply satisfying * Publishers Weekly *
A honey-sweet novel * Elle *
Superb * Woman & Home *
Maybe it is true that there are no perfect books, but I closed this one believing that I had found perfection. The
language is never anything short of crystalline and inspired. The
plotting is subtle and
careful and
exquisitely executed...The
characters are lovable and deep-hearted, fully dimensional, never pat.
The story endures long after the book is slipped back onto the shelf * Book magazine *
'Kidd's first novel is well placed, gentle and deeply moving'
The Times * The Times *
'A personal favourite, one of those infectiously written books you can't get out of your mind...a lovely tale' Bookseller * Bookseller *
'A tale that's beautifully and movingly written' Buzz * Buzz *
