The Murmur of Bees
From a beguiling voice in Mexican fiction comes an astonishing novel--her first to be translated into English--about a mysterious child with the power to change a family's history in a country on the verge of revolution.
From the day that old Nana Reja found a baby abandoned under a bridge, the life of a small Mexican town forever changed. Disfigured and covered in a blanket of bees, little Simonopio is for some locals the stuff of superstition, a child kissed by the devil. But he is welcomed by landowners Francisco and Beatriz Morales, who adopt him and care for him as if he were their own. As he grows up, Simonopio becomes a cause for wonder to the Morales family, because when the uncannily gifted child closes his eyes, he can see what no one else can--visions of all that's yet to come, both beautiful and dangerous. Followed by his protective swarm of bees and living to deliver his adoptive family from threats--both human and those of nature--Simonopio's purpose in Linares will, in time, be divined.
Set against the backdrop of the Mexican Revolution and the devastating influenza of 1918, The Murmur of Bees captures both the fate of a country in flux and the destiny of one family that has put their love, faith, and future in the unbelievable.
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Community Reviews
What’s it about?
Old Nana Rena rarely stops rocking in her chair and gazing out towards the land. One day Nana Rena gets up and follows a sound from far away. She slowly walks to an old bridge and discovers an infant that has been left. It is disfigured and covered in a blanket of bees. She takes the bundle (bees and all) back to the home of Fernando and Beatriz Morales and they welcome him in as their godson. So begins the story of Simonopio and the family that welcomes him into their lives.
What did it make me think about?
Magical realism and how beautifully one can tell a story.
Should I read it?
This novel is the first by Sofia Segovia to be translated into English from her native Spanish. She is a beautiful storyteller and who doesn’t love a story full of magical elements? This book of historical fiction takes place at the beginning of the 1900’s. It was written before the recent pandemic so I found it interesting that the first part of the novel deals with the Spanish Flu. So reminiscent of what the world would go through 100 years later. My biggest criticism of the story is that occasionally gets bogged down and could have used a good editor. This is a book to be slowly appreciated- you can not rush it. It is a lovely story and anyone who enjoys this genre should pick this book up.
Quote-
“It is a well-known fact that the yellow fever epidemic a few years before and the new so-called Spanish pandemic killed more Mexicans than all the bullets fired during the Revolution. Still, in January 1919, in Linares, these details were of little interest , because absences were not measured in numbers or statistics: they were measured in grief.”
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