The Secret Life of Bees - by Sue Monk Kidd (Paperback)

About the Book

Now in paperback comes the intoxicating debut novel of "one motherless daughter's discover of . . . the strange and wondrous places we find love" ("The Washington Post"). A bestseller in hardcover, Sue Monk Kidd's ravishing work is set in South Carolina in 1964. A movie version is forthcoming from Fox Searchlight.

Book Synopsis

The multi-million bestselling novel about a young girl's journey towards healing and the transforming power of love, from the award-winning author of The Invention of Wings and The Book of Longings

Set in South Carolina in 1964, The Secret Life of Bees tells the story of Lily Owens, whose life has been shaped around the blurred memory of the afternoon her mother was killed. When Lily's fierce-hearted Black "stand-in mother," Rosaleen, insults three of the deepest racists in town, Lily decides to spring them both free. They escape to Tiburon, South Carolina--a town that holds the secret to her mother's past. Taken in by an eccentric trio of Black beekeeping sisters, Lily is introduced to their mesmerizing world of bees and honey, and the Black Madonna. This is a remarkable novel about divine female power, a story that women will share and pass on to their daughters for years to come.

Review Quotes

"A moving first novel...Lily is an authentic and winning character and her story is compellingly told. The bees presage her journey toward self-acceptance, faith and freedom that is at the heart of this novel." --USA Today

"Inspiring. Sue Monk Kidd is a direct literary descendant of Carson McCullers." --The Baltimore Sun

"Fully imagined...the core of this story is Lily's search for a mother, and she finds one in a place she never expected." --The New York Times Book Review

"This is the story of a young girl's journey toward healing, and of the intrinsic sacredness of living in the world. Simply wonderful." --Anne Rivers Siddons

"The stunning metaphors and realistic characters are so poignant they will bring tears to your eyes." --Library Journal

"Kidd has written a triumphant coming-of-age novel that speaks to the universal need for love" --New Orleans Times-Picayune

"The chapters...dance on the edges of 'Magical Realism, ' that blend of the fabulous and the ordinary that can invest a tale with a sense of wonderment, as is the case here." --Richmond Times-Dispatch

"I am amazed that this moving, original, and accomplished book is a first novel. It is wonderfully written, powerful, poignant, and humorous, and deliciously eccentric. Do read it." --Joanna Trollope

"A wonderful novel about mothers and daughters and the transcendent power of love." --Connie May Fowler

"A truly original Southern voice." --Anita Shreve

"It's as if Kidd loaded up a take-home plate with treats, and you said 'Oh, I couldn't, ' and then scarfed it down in the car on the way home." --Entertainment Weekly

"The tale of one motherless daughter's discovery of what family really means--and of the strange and wondrous places we love." --The Washington Post

About the Author

Sue Monk Kidd is the award-winning and bestselling author of the novels The Secret Life of Bees and The Mermaid Chair, the memoirs When the Heart Waits, The Dance of the Dissident, and Traveling with Pomegranates, which she wrote with her daughter Ann Kidd Taylor, as well as Firstlight, a collection of her early writings. She lives on an island off the coast of Florida with her husband.

Jessica Hische is a letterer, illustrator, typographer, and web designer. She currently serves on the Type Directors Club board of directors, has been named a Forbes Magazine "30 under 30" in art and design as well as an ADC Young Gun and one of Print Magazine's "New Visual Artists". She has designed for Wes Anderson, McSweeney's, Tiffany & Co, Penguin Books and many others. She resides primarily in San Francisco, occasionally in Brooklyn