Description: "[A] gripping Cinderella/Arthurian tale with lush Keatsian adjectives." - Margaret Atwood, via Twitter "The Bees is an extraordinary feat of imagination, conjuring the life of a beehive in gripping, passionate and brilliant detail. With every page I turned, I found myself drawn deeper into Flora''s plight and her immersive, mesmerizing world." - Madeline Miller, bestselling author of The Song of Achilles "The Bees is one wild ride. A sensual, visceral mini-epic about timeless rituals and modern environmental disaster. Paull''s heart pounding novel wrenches us into a new world." - Emma Donoghue, The New York Times bestselling author of Room "This is a rich, strange book...convincing in its portrayal of the mind-set of a bee and a hive. I finished it feeling I knew...how bees think and live. This is what sets us humans apart--our imagination can...create a complete, believable world so different from our own." - Tracy Chevalier, New York Times bestselling author of Girl With a Pearl Earring "Laline Paull''s transfixing first novel, The Bees , isn''t explicitly about the real-world problems that threaten their survival , but the story''s inspired imagining of hive life compels one to wonder about the extraordinary complexity and sophistication of these insects - and to care about their fate....It quickly became clear that in its basic facts, the novel sticks closely to real-world apian biology and behavior. That is fascinating enough, but Paull deftly wields this information to create an even more elaborately layered culture of beeness...Beautiful." - Washington Post "Richly imagined." - Los Angeles Times "A marvelous work of fiction... The parallels to "1984" and Margaret Atwood''s "The Handmaid''s Tale" are numerous but this story is also its own." - Florida Times-Union "Richly imagined" - Los Angeles Times "Riveting... evocative and beautiful." - NPR "Fascinating... engrossing... Paull''s clear fascination with her source material brings humanity and warmth to a depiction of the remarkable social world of bees, which is no small achievement." - Huffington Post "Told with rapturously attentive imagination...Few novels create such a singular reading experience." - New York Times Book Review "It quickly became clear that in its basic facts, the novel sticks closely to real-world apian biology and behavior. That is fascinating enough, but Paull deftly wields this information to create an even more elaborately layered culture of beeness...Beautiful." - Washington Post "Brilliantly imagined...Inside the striking cover art - a gilded swarm buzzing above enormous, bold black font - lives a sure-to-be classic book somewhere between Watership Down and A Handmaid''s Tale ...Paull''s use of human language to describe this tiny, intricate world is classic storytelling at its finest... The Bees boasts a refreshingly feminist spin on fairy tale-style plots....A wildly creative book that resonates deeply for quite a long time. I''ll bet that upon finishing this book--one of my new favorites--you''ll think twice about spraying your yard, and maybe even take the time to stop and smell a nectar-laden flower." - Austin Chronicle "Brilliantly imagined...Paull''s use of human language to describe this tiny, intricate world is classic storytelling at its finest... The Bees boasts a refreshingly feminist spin on fairy tale-style plots....A wildly creative book that resonates deeply for quite a long time. - Austin Chronicle "Paull''s accomplishments here are truly myriad and impressive...Such a blending of human and non-human attributes might appear parodic or silly in lesser hands, but Paull brings it off brilliantly. Her prose is a marvel of precision and grace and poetry as well, and above all, sensual...What Laline Paull has accomplished here is multivalent: a rumination on nature; a portrait of the struggle between individual and the stifling matrix of society; and a depiction of how humanity might organize itself along different lines. I''d call it, in the end, science fiction at its best." - Locus "It''s rare to come across a book as mind-blowingly imaginative as Laline Paull''s The Bees . It''s even more rare for such works to be successful, well-written, gripping stories. Paull''s novel--a strange, poetic tale about a homely sanitation bee and her place in the Hive--is both unique and triumphant. The Bees is an utterly memorable wonder of a novel....Do yourself a favor and read this book." - Kirkus Reviews "It''s rare to come across a book as mind-blowingly imaginative as Laline Paull''s The Bees . It''s even more rare for such works to be successful, well-written, gripping stories... The Bees is an utterly memorable wonder of a novel." - Kirkus Reviews

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