A novel about the families we choose for ourselves, by masterful storyteller Eileen Garvin
BEE MUSIC
by Eileen Garvin
Dutton, pub. date TBD
Alice Holtzman is demographically unfashionable: middle-aged, childless, introverted, and more concerned with a job well done than how she looks doing it. After the sudden death of her husband, she starts having panic attacks. It’s in the grips of one of these attacks that she hits Jake—a troubled, paraplegic teenager with the tallest mohawk in the Pacific Northwest—with her pickup truck. Oh, and did we mention that truck was full of 120,000 restless honeybees? Everyone is surprised when Alice lets Jake move onto her farm, and even more surprised when she hires Harry, a bumbling twenty-something with a sketchy past, to help her with her apiary. When a nefarious pesticide company threatens the local honeybee population, this unlikely trio unites to defend the bees, and, in the process, forge a path out of their respective griefs.
Eileen Garvin was born and raised in the Pacific Northwest. She completed her B.A. in English at Seattle University, and her M.A. in English at the University of New Mexico. She writes for newspapers, magazines, and websites from Hood River, Oregon, where she lives with her husband.
As graduates embark on the next phase of their lives, what better way to get them accustomed to the rat race they are about to enter than by introducing them to the philosophy of Jean-Paul Sartre? Cleverly told through the story of a pair of rats trapped in the labyrinth of existence, this allegory humorously conveys the key ideas of Sartre’s existential philosophy in graphic novel form—accessible for students and readers of all ages. In addition, two reputable Sartre scholars have contributed the introduction and afterword: Gary Cox, a British philosopher with a doctorate from the University of Birmingham, and Christine Daigle, professor of philosophy at Brock University in Canada.
Paras is a spirited young racehorse living at a stable in the French countryside. One afternoon she pushes open the gate of her stall—she’s a curious filly—and, after traveling through the night, arrives by chance in Paris. She’s dazzled, and often mystified, by the sights, sounds and smells around her, but she isn’t afraid. Soon she meets an elegant dog, a German shorthair pointer named Frida, who knows how to get by in the city without attracting the attention of suspicious Parisians. Paras and Frida coexist for a time in the city’s lush green spaces, nourished by Frida’s strategic trips to the butchery and the bakery. They keep company with two irrepressible ducks, and by an opinionated crow. But then Paras meets a human boy, Etienne, and discovers a new, otherworldly part of Paris: the secluded, ivy-walled house where the boy and his nearly-one-hundred-year-old great grandmother live, quietly and unto themselves. As the cold weather and Christmas near, the unlikeliest of friendships bloom among humans and animals alike. But how long can a runaway horse live undiscovered in Paris? And how long can a boy keep her hidden, and all his own? Jane Smiley’s beguiling new novel is itself an adventure that celebrates curiosity and ingenuity, and expresses the desire of all creatures for true friendship, love, and freedom.
