A Recipe for Bees

Used
Paperback
2000
$3.38

Augusta Olsen is a woman with passions and desires who has inherited three things from her mother: a wayward heart, a talent for beekeeping and the very dubious gift of second sight. These are legacies just too big for a young wife who finds life on a remote farm with shy, awkward Karl and his detestable father almost unbearable. But farming husbands and wives are married to their land as much as to each other. From that kind of necessity, a different sort of love is made - and remade...'The characterisation is excellent throughout and the novel abounds in fine vignettes of domestic life. Its evocation of humdrum lives illuminated by heroism is truly heart-warming' - SUNDAY TELEGRAPH

Synopsis

Augusta Olsen is a woman with passions and desires who has inherited three things from her mother: a wayward heart, a talent for beekeeping and the very dubious gift of second sight. These are legacies just too big for a young wife who finds life on a remote farm with shy, awkward Karl and his detestable father almost unbearable. But farming husbands and wives are married to their land as much as to each other. From that kind of necessity, a different sort of love is made - and remade...'The characterisation is excellent throughout and the novel abounds in fine vignettes of domestic life. Its evocation of humdrum lives illuminated by heroism is truly heart-warming' - SUNDAY TELEGRAPH

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More Information

Format: Paperback
Pages: 320
Edition: New e.
Publisher: Virago
Published: 20 Jan 2000
ISBN 10: 1860496989
ISBN 13: 9781860496981

Media Reviews

'An absorbing read ... arresting ... This is a swarmy, hummy, sticky book' THE TIMES 'The characterisation is excellent throughout and the novel abounds in fine vignettes of domestic life. Its evocation of humdrum lives illuminated by heroism is truly heart-warming' SUNDAY TELEGRAPH 'Shares the rich vision of fellow Canadians Margaret Atwood and Alice Munro ... a real discovery' MAIL ON SUNDAY 'The writing sings in this novel of memory and desire' SUNDAY TIMES 'A beguling tale, unexpectedly funny and shot through with ripe emotional revelation.' DAILY TELEGRAPH 'Well-written.' INDEPENDENT 'Anderson-Dargatz vividly explores the forces that bind people together across lifetimes.' OBSERVER 'her writing on bees and beekeeping reads as entomological poetry.' THE TIMES 'A gentle ode to the need for self-acceptabce and the natural order of the world.' BIG ISSUE 'There is nostalgia in Gail Anderson-Dargatz's writing; she values the closeness to the earth to be found in these hard lives. But she avoids sentimentality through the sharpness of her observation. What she had achieved in commemoration of a lifestyle and a collection of characters that live on when the novel is finished.' TLS

Author Bio

Gail Anderson-Dargatz's first novel THE CURE FOR DEATH BY LIGHTNING became an instant bestseller in Britain and Canada and won many prizes including a Betty Trask Award. She lives with her husband on a farm in Alberta, Canada.