She also finds her way into the Queen’s inner sanctum, where she discovers mysteries about the hive that are both profound and ominous.īut when Flora breaks the most sacred law of all-daring to challenge the Queen’s fertility-enemies abound, from the fearsome fertility police who enforce the strict social hierarchy to the high priestesses jealously wedded to power. She is allowed to feed the newborns in the royal nursery and then to become a forager, flying alone and free to collect pollen.
With circumstances threatening the hive’s survival, her curiosity is regarded as a dangerous flaw but her courage and strength are an asset. Thrilling and imaginative, ‘The Bees’ is the story of a heroine who changes her destiny and her world.The Handmaid’s Tale meets The Hunger Games in this brilliantly imagined debut set in an ancient culture where only the queen may breed and deformity means death.įlora 717 is a sanitation worker, a member of the lowest caste in her orchard hive where work and sacrifice are the highest virtues and worship of the beloved Queen the only religion. Laline Paull’s chilling yet ultimately triumphant novel creates a luminous world both alien and uncannily familiar. But Flora cannot help but break the most sacred law of all, meaning her instinct to serve is overshadowed by a desire, as overwhelming as it is forbidden… Then she finds her way into the Queen’s inner sanctum, where she discovers secrets both sublime and ominous.Įnemies roam everywhere, from the fearsome fertility police to the high priestesses who jealously guard the Hive Mind. And while mutant bees are usually instantly destroyed, Flora is reassigned to feed the newborns, before becoming a forager, collecting pollen on the wing. Yet Flora has talents that are not typical of her kin. Living to accept, obey and serve, she is prepared to sacrifice everything for her beloved holy mother, the Queen.
Longlisted for the Desmond Elliott Prize for New Fiction 2015Įnter a whole new world, in this thrilling debut novel set entirely within a beehive.īorn into the lowest class of her society, Flora 717 is a sanitation bee, only fit to clean her orchard hive. Shortlisted for the Baileys Women's Prize for Fiction 2015
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