The History of Bees ~ Book Review

Spanning 3 time lines, the History of Bees tells the story of 3 families whose life and livelihoods involve bees.  William is a biologist in England during the 1850's.  William had big dreams but he is fighting depression as his life has not turned out the way he planned.  Relegated to a small seed store he is trying to eek out a living for his family.  But it's hard to not just curl up in a ball in his bedroom and give up.  But with the encouragement of his young daughter William sets out to develop a new hive, one that will help the bees with honey production and bring his family fame and fortune.

George is a bee farmer in the U.S. in 2007.  He is struggling with bee farming in the day and age as it is.  When whole colonies literally start disappearing across the south it throws bee keepers everywhere into a panic. His hope is in his son whom he saved and scrimped to send to college in the hopes he would advance the family business.  When his son shows no interest in it, in fact wanting to turn to journalism and writing instead, George is devastated and fears for the livelihood of his family.

In China during the year 2098, Tao's world has seen the complete disappearance of bees.  Now workers must literally hand paint pollen onto crops in order to produce food.  Tao daily climbs fruit trees in the ardous, back breaking task but that is her government assigned job and she has no choice.  On a rare day off, Tao, her husband and young son head to the field to have a family picnic.  They should be at an event but Tao talked her husband into taking a small amount of time to just do something with their family.  When her son has an accident the authorities whisk him away and Tao has to fight to find any information about what happened to him and where they took him.  Setting out into cities long abandoned by most people, Tao is on a desperate search and won't go back until she finds out what happened.

This was an interesting look into the life of a bee keeper and what can happen when bees disappear off the face of the earth.  I found the triple timeline, historical, contemporary and future dystopian, an interesting way to tell the story. Though I did wonder how it was all going to tie together in the end.  It seemed like three distinct stories but the author does bring it together.  It does get into environmental issues such as climate change at times but wasn't too terribly heavy handed.  It is translated from Norwegian and I thought it, for the most part, was done well.  This is not an action story by any means.  It moves slowly in some parts but I think that sets the tone for some of storytelling.  I found I did get frustrated, even offended, at some points in the historical part of the story with the main character and his attitudes and actions but I'm sure it was consistent with the era and location.  I found the stories did get me thinking about the environmental impact on bees and farmers so the author did her job in that area.  I couldn't help but feel and empathize for George and hold my breath for Tao as she dug deep for the courage to find her son.  Though this had mixed reviews I did enjoy it for the most part.  

I gave it a 8/10

Reading Challenge Goals Met for "Animals on the Cover".  (I counted bees as the animal.  And may I say this particular cover was gorgeous!)