Rencontre with
Paul Murray

The CCI is delighted to welcome Irish author Paul Murray to launch the publication of his latest novel, The Bee Sting, published by Albin Michel (translated by Pierre Demarty).

An irresistibly funny, wise, and thought-provoking novel about family, fortune, and the struggle to be a good person when the world is falling apart.

The Barnes family is in trouble. Dickie’s once-lucrative car business is going under, but Dickie is 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 and half-heartedly dodging the attention of fast-talking cattle farmer Big Mike, while their teenage daughter, Cass, formerly top of her class, seems determined to binge drink her way through her final exams. As for twelve-year-old PJ, he’s on the brink of running away.
If you wanted to change this story, how far back would you have to go? To the infamous bee sting that ruined Imelda’s wedding day? To the car crash one year before Cass was born? All the way back to Dickie at ten years old, standing in the summer garden with his father, learning how to be a real man?
A portrait of postcrash Ireland, a tragicomic family saga, and a dazzling story about the struggle to be good at the end of the world.

Paul Murray is the acclaimed author of Skippy Dies, which was shortlisted for numerous literary awards in the UK following its publication in 2010 and has since been translated into fifteen languages. The Bee Sting was shortlisted for the Booker Prize in 2023.