The Secret Life of Bees

Lily has grown up believing she accidentally killed her mother when she was four. She not only has her own memory of holding the gun, but her father's account of the event. Now fourteen, she yeams for her mother, and for forgiveness. Living on a peach farm in South Carolina with her father, she has only one friend: Rosaleen, a black servant whose sharp exterior hides a tender heart. South Carolina in the sixties is a place where segregation is still considered a cause worth fighting for. When racial tension explodes one summer afternoon, and Rosaleen is arrested and beaten, Lily is compelled to act. Fugitives from justice and from Lily's harsh and unyielding father, they follow a trail left by the woman who died ten years before. Finding sanctuary in the home of three beekeeping sisters, Lily starts a journey as much about her understanding of the world, as about the mystery surrounding her mother.

About the Author

Sue Monk Kidd is the author of two widely acclaimed memoirs, THE DANCE OF THE DISSIDENT DAUGHTER and WHEN THE HEART WAITS. Her fiction has appeared in several literary journals. Her second novel, THE MERMAID CHAIR, is published by Review in March 2005. Sue Monk Kidd lives beside a salt marsh in Charleston, South Carolina with her husband.

Reviews

'Kidd's first novel is well placed, gentle and deeply moving' The Times -- The Times 20030308