Thursday, May 7, 2009

Of Bees and Mist by Erick Setiawan - free ARC from Barnes and Noble First Look Book Club

I'd just heard that I'm in the new Barnes & Nobles First Look Book Club for "Of Bees and Mist", the debut novel of Erick Setiawan.

Of Bees and Mist by Erick Setiawan: Book Cover

Here's how B&N describes the book:

Early reads have drawn comparisons to Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell and rightfully so! Setiawan's debut is magical in every sense of the word and it is the absolute perfect book to lead us (and the conversation!) into the ethereal world of summer.

Of Bees and Mist is the tale of Meridia-raised in a sepulchral house where ghosts dwell in mirrors, she spends her childhood feeling neglected and invisible. Every evening her father vanishes inside a blue mist without so much as an explanation, and her mother spends her days venomously beheading cauliflowers in the kitchen. At sixteen, desperate to escape, Meridia marries a tenderhearted young man and moves into his seemingly warm and charming family home. Little does she suspect that his parents are harboring secrets of their own. There is a grave hidden in the garden. There are two sisters groomed from birth to despise each other. And there is Eva, the formidable matriarch whose grievances swarm the air like an army of bees. In this haunting story, Setiawan takes Meridia on a tumultuous ride of hope and heartbreak as she struggles to keep her young family together and discovers long-kept secrets about her own past as well as the shocking truths about her husband's family.

Readers of magical-realist fiction will instantly be captivated by this richly evocative fairy tale. Of Bees and Mist takes place in a nameless town during a timeless era, where spirits and spells, witchcraft and demons, ghosts and clairvoyance-both real and imagined-are an everyday reality. Setiawan skillfully blends the real and the fantastical as he follows our heroine over a thirty year time span in which her love, courage, and sanity is tested to the limits.

The First Look Book Club is still open for membership, so do check it!

Aside from the free book, I have very much enjoyed the online discussions during the last book clubs and the chance to discuss with the author and publisher. The Physick Book of Deliverance Dane by Katherine Howe was particularly lively!

No comments:

Post a Comment