GREY BEES

by Andrey Kurkov

Grey Bees is a novel that I would likely never have found without a recommendation from one of my favorite people: Diana Harding. Although it is written by an internationally known Ukrainian author and translated by an award-winning translator, Ukrainian fiction has not until now been on my reading radar. I’m thrilled to be able to alert all of you to this quiet, heartfelt, gorgeous book.

Set in the small Ukrainian town of Little Starhorodivka, which finds itself in the Grey Zone between loyalist and separatist forces, only two residents remain: Sergey Sergeyich and Pashka, his boyhood enemy. All the town’s other residents have fled to safer places, but Sergey and Pashka stubbornly remain to protect their houses from the bombardment that often rains down upon them. Neither man has much food and they haven’t had electricity for years. Without the other one knowing, each man forms a secret connection with a soldier involved in the fighting. But although the novel is set in a war zone, its main focus is on relationships – particularly between these two “frenemies” and between Sergey and the bees he tends with such care and concern.

Towards the end of their third spring of life alone in Little Starhorodivka, Sergey makes the wrenching decision to leave the small town and Pashka and make his way to Crimea, so his bees can de-stress and find more plentiful flowers. That I describe this book about war as quiet may sound crazy. But it is Sergey’s outlook on life, his inner thoughts and his complex but caring relationship with Pashka that really set the tone of Grey Bees. Even if you don’t normally look for such things, Kurkov’s rich symbolism and clever but subtle comparisons of humans and bees add to the book’s appeal. I strongly encourage you to take a few hours to read this highly original and beautifully executed story. (Liz)