An astonishing read, and quite unlike my typical read. Lunde deftly links the three stories together while raising present concerns about bee populations and their impact on life and the future of humanity. Highly recommended!

Everything I'd hoped for from this amazing author. An engaging, emotionally satisfying read! Such an important message for our planet as well. Educational as well as entertaining.

I have had this book on my kindle for some time and decided to read The History of Bees by Maja Lunde because the title fulfills the Bingo square -"an insect" for my GoodReads group.

Maja Lunde is a Norwegian author and screenwriter. She has written ten books for children and young adults, and has written scripts for Norwegian television. The History of Bees is her first novel for adults. Wanting to know more about this debut novelist, I "Googled" her. "The History of Bees won The Norwegian Bookseller’s Prize as well as multiple international awards and was the bestselling book in Germany in 2017. As part of the author’s planned Climate Quartet, the stand-alone sequels The End of the Ocean (2017) and Przewalskis Horse (2019) has been published to equal acclaim.Maja Lunde lives with her husband and three children in Oslo."
This dazzling and ambitious literary debut follows three generations of beekeepers from the past, present, and future, weaving a spellbinding story of their relationship to bees - and to their children and one another - against the backdrop of an urgent, global crisis.
In 1852 England, William, a biologist and seed merchant, sets out to build a new type of beehive that will give him and his children honour and fame.
In 2007 United States, George, a beekeeper, fights an uphill battle against modern farming, but hopes that his son Tom can be their salvation.
In 2098 China, Tao hand paints pollen onto the fruit trees now that the bees have long since disappeared. When Tao's young son is taken away by the authorities after a tragic accident, she sets out on a gruelling journey to find out what happened to him.
Haunting, illuminating, and deftly written, The History of Bees joins these three very different narratives into one gripping and thought-provoking story that is about the powerful bond between children and parents and our relationship to nature and to humanity.

Thanks to Touchstone (a division of Simon and Schuster), Simon & Schuster and NetGalley for a digital ARC of The History of Bees by Maja Lunde.
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The History of Bees by Norwegian Author Maja Lunde is a dystopian novel written in non-linear form moving back and forth between three different time periods, protagonists, and places:

2098 – Tao – China
2007 – George – USA
1851 – William – England

In 2098, the disappearance of the bees has led to starvation and plummeting populations in urban areas like Beijing. In rural areas, pollination is laboriously carried out by human workers. Tao is one such worker but she hopes for better for her son Wei-Wen. When a tragedy occurs to her family, it has consequences that will change everything.

In 2007, George is a beekeeper in Ohio. He wants his son, Tom, to follow in his footsteps but Tom has other plans. George has heard of the collapse of bee colonies in Florida and California but puts it down to negligence…until it starts happening to his bees.

In 1851, William is an unhappy shopkeeper whose real passion lies with studying biology especially insects. He had descended into deep depression after he is rejected by a beloved mentor. It is only when he thinks his son, Edmund, is worried that he finally begins to return to life and develops a new interest in beekeeping. But it is really his daughter, Charlotte, who cares about him and his work and, together, they design a new beehive that allows them to observe the actions of the bees as they work.

The History of Bees is a well-written and translated novel. It is also a very dark story about the consequences of human meddling in the environment. But, given this, it ends on a surprisingly hopeful note. There is a wealth of research and history about bees and beekeeping as well as speculation about the causes and consequences of the collapse which may put some people off. But, at least for me, it didn't interfere with the story itself - rather I felt it added to it. It did make me think though and that is always a good thing.

<i>Thanks to Netgalley and Simon & Schuster Canada for the opportunity to read this book in exchange for an honest review</i>

The themes of despair coupled with hope can be difficult to cope with as a reader, The world is fascinating and vast, but I wish we could have spent more time in the future or if that had been the main crux of the book rather than focused on the present and past. Just in terms of the world, it was a new and fascinating take on how we would survive as a race without the pollination of bees.

I really enjoyed this book, however, I found it hard to connect with the characters and their struggles. I'm not sure why that is, I loved the writing, but the characters just failed to grab me.

This is wonderful!
By a Norwegian novel debut author, Maja Lunde; translated from Norwegian The History of Bees is really well written. While I give 80% of that credit to Lunde, a bit of credit is due to the translator Diane Oatley.
Following three different timelines, all related to bees in some way, this is a literary masterpiece.

The three settings
We have 1898, 2007 and 2089 as our time periods. Set in completely different parts of the world as well; England, USA and China respectively.

Of course the future timeline starts off the most interesting because we get to learn what Lunde sees as our (and the bees) world in 80ish years. As always it's a bit bleak.

In 2007 we are treated to honey production at the farm scale (not industrial) but still as the main income source. And of course, anyone who is aware of the bee situation today knows that this was around the time colonies were starting to suddenly collapse with no reason.

The past starts off slow but becomes really interesting as a man with an awful lot of children starts innovating his own type of beehive. The innovation is to allow for easier harvesting of the honey that doesn't require as many bees dying when you open the hive to harvest.

Characters
This is where Lunde really excels. Her characters are so life-like. The point of views (one per timeline) we are treated to are parents with children at various ages. Relationships between parents and their children are what The History of Bees is really about; and what makes it a solid 'typical book club' pick.

In all cases the parents wish better for their children, or at least speak of a legacy to help their children have better lives than their own in the future. A very typical parental obsession; but portrayed here in a way which even adults without children (like myself) can understand and appreciate.

It's all about the bees
I've looked into a small beehive for our yard before with no success because we don't think we can meet the space regulations. So going into this I knew a teeny tiny bit about colony collapse disorder (CDC).

Now after reading this I'm determined to have a hive at some point under my care. The bees are the link between our three timelines but they are also the link to humanity's survival. Pollination is key for most fruits and many other food sources to grow. Now let's be specific here for a minute we are talking about honeybees. There are lots of kinds of bees but the ones that are critical make the honey.

It's clear, even to a very amateur prospective beekeeper, that Lunde has done her homework here. Everything that happens in the 2007 timeline has already happened and her descriptions and explanations of the situations are anything but boring. Most of our characters are in love with bees and so they speak or think passionately about it. With just the right amount of truth and science built in. A very enjoyable way to learn about honey bees!

So for me the book felt like it was all about the bees (and bees are what drew me to it). Even though the bees are the link across time, the reality is that The History of Bees is about people coping with being a parent in their given timeline. The bees just make it sweeter.

Overall
The History of Bees was effortless to read. The characters and settings seemed to leap off the page for me. With the addition of a very relevant, important and interesting topic of bees thrown in this was a lovely piece of literature and one I look forward to adding to my print book collection (the next time I'm at a bookstore). In my book collection these days there is no higher honour than being an ebook or review copy that I read and decide to buy a print copy of. Lunde has earned this honour and I can't wait to read her next novel.

January 26, 2018

The History of Bees Review
A special thank you to NetGalley, and Simon & Schuster for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.
A compelling look from three different perspectives, and three different time lines, at how bees play a role in day to day life. There is plenty of mystery and intrigue in this novel to keep the pages turning. The opening lines of the story are beautifully descriptive, and that style of language is carried throughout the book. It invokes a sympathy from the reader for the plight of the characters.
Unfortunately, with my schedule and commitments, I’m a read 10 pages, back up and reread 3 or 4 the next time I get to sit down with it, so the continuity is sometimes lost. Tao’s story was my favourite, and when I reached the end, I felt that hers was the only story clearly summed up. William I lost several chapters before the end, and George disappeared as well. I went back several chapters to reread the ending to see if I missed something. I was more satisfied after my reread, but I still feel William was left to ones imagination more than I would have liked.
Overall, I enjoyed the book, its subject matter and its characters.
I will definitely read more from Maja Lunde!

This book consists of three connected stories which their connection is not clear until almost the end of the book. When the connection is revealed the three stories become one and it’s actually story of us, humans.

1851/ England: William, an academic which tries to design a new bee hive in order to observe their lives. He’s obsessed with first his research then his son Edmund who seems ignores him all the time.

2007/USA. George. He’s from a generation of bee keepers/ Organic bee keeprs. He takes taking care of bees very seriously and tries to win his to-be-writer son over and has him back to family business.

2098/China. Tao. She is a corn worker in an era that everything looks doomed, there is no education and children become workers at an early age. Tao tries to teach his young son what she knows in rare time off she has but when one day the family goes to picnic and the son collapses everything changes for them.

The main theme of the book is what we do with our environment and how it would affect our lives in long term. Bee’s fate is the symbol of disaster coming to humans due to playing too much with nature and neglecting alarming evidences that we screw too much to recover.
I really liked how three stories were connected at the end. It was done quite beautifully. At some point it might seem slow but for sure it deserves to be read.

Lunde has written a very special and timely book. Her examination of family expectation, personal struggle to realized a dream, and survival unspools over three separate time lines. It is and environmental call to arms. It is an examination of how dreams can be crushed. But in the end, I feel, it is hopeful.

This novel follows three families in three different time periods. William is a seed merchant and biologist in the mid 1800’s. He dreams of more, he dreams of making a discovery regarding bees. Most of his family doesn’t understand his passion, including his son Edmund. George is a beekeeper working during the early 21st Century. He treats his bees well and hand makes beehives. Although he has heard of and fears being affected by Colony Collapse Disorder it isn’t until he experiences it that he sees the damage it can do. Tao works as a hand pollinator for fruit trees in China. Her son is taken away due to an alignment, but she refuses to rest until she gets the truth from the Chinese government.

All three lives were beautifully written and portrayed. William was a passionate biologist who doesn’t care for the mundane aspects of life. All he wants to do is study bees and contribute to science that will be remember throughout the years. His family doesn’t understand his passion except Charolette. He feels betrayed by his son as his son doesn’t amount to anything and instead wastes his life away in women and booze. Initially I couldn’t understand why William fell into such a deep depression, it took a few chapters to fully understand the depths of Williams passion.

George is a beekeeper who expects his son to follow in his footsteps. When his son decides to follow his passion in acidemia instead George becomes angry. I didn’t really like George as a character, I found him too rigid and angry. He didn’t take other people’s wishes into mind and instead demands they do what he wanted. I also didn’t understand why his wife wasn’t helping on the farm.

Tao’s story was the best part. I enjoyed reading a fictional (yet might come true) portrayal of a future without bees. Society has slowly collapsed, and major cities are slowly falling in ruin. Tao’s pursuit of the truth is driven and the reader hopes for her to have a happy ending yet knows it won’t happen.

Overall this novel is a beautiful portrayal of humanities, passion, love, dedication and hope written for three different lives. All three families are connected by bees. This novel also stands as a stark reminder of what our future may bee if society doesn’t work together to save bees.

Thanks to Netgalley and Touchstone for an ARC.

The History of Bees is an ambitious cautionary tale about Colony Collapse Disorder – bees all over the world are disappearing without explanation, and without pollination, our food sources will disappear with them. This isn’t exactly a dystopia, since it is already happening today, and the world described here is a likely outcome if we don’t protect our bees from pesticides and other invasive modern farming methods. This is one of the most relevant and quietly terrifying environmental disasters of our time, and it is described here with an emphasis on the personal repercussions of the collapse – if we don’t fix it now, it is our children who will suffer.

The novel is told in three parts, looking at the past, present and future. In Hertfordshire, England in 1852, William is a biologist who has failed professionally and given up on life and ambition. He takes to his bed, leaving his family with no source of income, until he is inspired by his daughter to design and build a new type of beehive. It is built so that the layers can be removed and studied without damaging the colony, and he thinks his study of bees will result in fame and fortune for his family.

Years later, in 2007, George is a beekeeper in rural Ohio. He shuns modern farming advances, and still builds his own hives using the design that has been passed down through generations of his family. As George watches how powerful pesticides are destroying neighbouring bee colonies, he learns about the newly named Colony Collapse Disorder, in which beekeepers open up their hives in the spring and the bees are just gone with no explanation. George hopes for the best, and expects that his son will take over the family business – but Tom is more interested in his university writing classes.

In Sichuan, China in the year 2098, we see the full repercussions of the loss of the bees. Tao is one of many people who does the hard labour of hand-painting pollen onto fruit trees, to preserve the crops that cannot live without the bees. The government controls every aspect of peoples’ lives, they barely make a living wage, and have almost no free time to try to improve their lives. Tao wants more for her son Wei-Wen, but her decision to spend a day in the fields teaching him simple math ends in tragedy. Wei-Wen is taken by government authorities, and Tao makes the dangerous journey to Beijing in order to find out the truth about Wei-Wen’s accident.

The History of Bees is a haunting story because it is already happening in our world – this isn’t some distant future issue, but one that is affecting us today. However, this is not only an examination of environmental disaster – it is also about the powerful bond between parents and their children. It’s thought-provoking in this context, because while we will do anything for our immediate children, we are less concerned about destroying the planet for generations to come.

I wish the storylines had come together sooner, because the ways that the three plots echo each other aren’t clear until the end. The pacing is often slow, especially in some of the technical explanations of beehives, and of the events that led to Tao’s world. However, it is definitely worth reading when it all comes together and we see how William, George and Tao are connected. This is a wake-up call about the bee epidemic that is told without being pedantic – and ultimately it is hopeful that this crisis can be reversed if we start thinking now about the future.

I received this book from Simon & Schuster and NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Three stories, each set in a different era 1851, 2007, 2098. Interwoven magically with the combined force of family relations and the building of hives. Invisible and visible work that culminates with the realization that what we create today has an effect on all future generations. Wonderful characters who embody the strength and weakness in all of us. This book is undeniable in its beauty of words and what it will drive you to discover about your own family. A frightening look into a future that we still have the power to prevent.

When I was reading The History of Bees I found the language and the style of writing unimpressive. I thought perhaps the translation into English wasn't very good. A good translation is essential and it can make or break a book by making it uninteresting, clumsily written, inaccessible. So I haven't been impressed by the English version of this book and the only way to verify my feelings would be to read it in the original language which I don't know or in another language which I may do in the future. Having said this I find that The History of Bees has stayed with me, I keep thinking about it and it did not disappear into the black whole of my brain. The three stories were compelling enough, the subject matter of bees and their precarious situation in the current environment, the author takes us into the future, into the world without the bees, made the story and its subject ingrain itself into my mind and it won't leave easily. Worth mentioning is also another theme uniting those three stories from different time periods other than the bees, it is family relationships in particular parent child relationships and all that entails: love and anger, expectations, empathy or lack of it, miscommunication and projecting. I think that regardless of less than stellar prose, this book is a great conversation starter and probably a very good candidate for book clubs.

Going into this book, I knew that it was a slow-burner that would take time to develop intrigue. I actually knew nothing about bees or pollination or the vital role that they play in our world, so I thought that was extremely interesting. The author really takes this environmental issue and beautifully connects it across 3 different generations and 3 very different groups of people. Each story was unique but presented the same content: parent-child relationships and how they are affected by parents' expectations or hopes for their child. I thought that the author did an amazing job in portraying this relationship in each of the stories. However, I found it hard to get into the story itself. This was mainly due to the fact that the characters didn't invoke any emotion from me. I didn't feel invested in them and found it hard to make a connection with them. I also found that while the topics that the novel addresses were important, the author never reached the core of anything; it just felt like some depth was missing. So while this is a very interesting story told from 3 very different perspectives, it didn't give me the overall effect I was looking for, which is why I'm giving this a 3/5 stars.

The History of Bees is a beautiful and richly-written story. I originally wanted to read it because one of my favorite creatures is the honey bee. The picture of the cover also doesn't do the book justice. The physical copy is so wonderful. It would be a perfect book for book clubs and for giving as a gift. It's just a wonderful book!

Something that you may or may not know about me is that I like bees. My favourite line of poetry is Virgil's Georgics IV: 87, "ingentis animos angusto in pectore versant (In their tiny chests beat mighty hearts)". So a novel titled The History of Bees, particularly one with science fictional elements and compared with Station Eleven , seemed right up my street. And indeed, there is much in this novel that is good. Tao's world and story, set eight decades into our future when bees have disappeared, is a fascinating projection of how society would change if the bee population were decimated. The struggles faced by beekeeper George against modern farming were a fascinating depiction of how industrialised agriculture harms the ecosystem. There are shades of a good book in here, and parts of it I found really enjoyable.

But then there's William, a mid-nineteenth-century biologist with whom I found it very difficult to connect. I suspect that the structure, in which these three stories in three timelines develop alongside one another, is intended to show the long history of the symbiotic relationship between humans and bees. But each story is so narrowly focused that the scope is limited, especially in the cases of William and George, whose relationship with bees is that they are beekeepers. The full force of the human/bee relationship is left to Tao's story, where the disappearance of the bees has a massive impact on the whole human race. William especially, but also George, seem to blunder through events without really having any impact on them; for me, George was likeable enough to maintain my interest, but William just didn't do anything for me at all. A much greater focus on Tao's story, with the other two told briefly through the books she reads and documentaries she watches, would have been much more interesting. As it stands, there are three quite weak stories vaguely interconnected, the chapters of which just happen to be interspersed between one another.

On top of which I also found the writing style awkward, relying regularly on info dumps and telling rather than showing. I think that part of the problem is in the translation, as there are quite a few awkward uses of English that really ought to have been better edited. But a glance through the Goodreads reviews suggests that this awkwardness is present in a number of different languages, so it seems unlikely that it is just the translation.

Therefore, while Tao's story is worthwhile and George's has some good bits, the novel as a whole is slow, frustrating, and fails to fulfil an interesting premise.

I have been reading a lot of articles and books on the disappearance of bees, in fact, I have already planned my garden by ordering plants that will attract the bees next summer. So when the opportunity to preview this book through Net Galley I just had to read it
I really loved “ The History of Bees,” as I was completely enthralled in each of the 3 stories: mid-1800s England, the current time the USA, late 2000s China. Each story is powerfully written and focuses on the different challenges faced with bees in each time frame. In the end, the 3 stories beautifully come together to make a complete picture.
We are reminded just how much we rely on their pollination in order to survive and get a glimpse of what could happen if we can't solve this problem now. I loved the stories, the writing style and I loved the message. You will enjoy this book even if you have no interest in bees. There are complete, relatable stories about the families in each setting and the struggle.
We must face it, bees do matter to all of us because we need them as long as we need food.

I was a little disappointed by this book - I thought it was going to be amazing, and it was good. But it didn't truly draw me in. While I liked reading the three stories concurrently, the chapters were so short I never felt involved in any of the stories. The writing about the bees was beautiful, though, and Tao's story was the most interesting. I would have loved to know more about her world.

This is a deep and moving story that encompasses both the past and the future...a wonderful blend of historical fiction and science fiction, complete with thought provoking insights into our environment.

I can’t recall when or where I first saw mention of The History of Bees, but I know I was immediately intrigued by it. Especially with the current situation in the world of bees dying/disappearing in massive quantities.

The idea behind the book, focusing on three different time periods, before, during and after the bees have disappeared, was certainly an interesting way to approach the story, and added a bit of history to it as well.

The book immediately dragged me in with the first chapter. The idea of humans having to climb trees in order to pollinate the flowers to ensure that there would be enough food was such a fantastic way to start things off. I could only imagine how difficult this would be, especially for those who had previously been working other jobs when the bees were still around. This is the job that Tao, one of the three main characters is forced to do. In fact, everyone has to do it, including young children. Tao’s story was by far my favorite of the three within the book.

The story about George, a bee keeper struggling during the collapse of the bees, was also pretty good. I didn’t enjoy it as much as Tao’s, but there were several aspects of his story that made me want to know more. To see how he would manage as the bees began to disappear.

Then there was William’s story. William’s part is in the past, the mid 1800’s when bees are plentiful and there is plenty of research to be done about them. This part of the story I struggled so much to get into. The start of William’s story was as far away from anything about bees as you could get and I honestly questioned why it had been including for quite a few chapters. Even when the focus finally switched to bees, I just couldn’t get into it. I didn’t care about him, his fascination with bees or his family. I just wanted to read the other two stories and be done with it.

I will admit that in some ways I was disappointed with this book. I honestly thought that bees, and in Tao’s case the lack there of, would be a major focus of this story, but in the end the book is more about broken families and their struggles to become normal than it is about bees. Bees just happen to be a common factor in all their lives. Other than that, they really have no connection. The author did make the stories have a connection in the end, and in a way it made sense, but by then I didn’t feel like they needed a connection.

I was torn on what rating to give this book. I kept waffling between 2.5 and 3 stars. Eventually I settled on 3 stars just because of Tao’s story. It was really the best things about the whole book.

I’m sure that there are many people out there who would love this book, so if you have considered reading it, then I say go for it. You will never know whether you will like it or not based on another opinions, you just have to read it and find out for yourself.