Product Description
Sue Monk Kidd's ravishing debut novel has stolen the hearts of reviewers and readers alike with its strong, assured voice. Set in South Carolina in 1964, The Secret Life of Bees tells the story of Lily Owens, whose life has been shaped around the blurred memory of the afternoon her mother was killed. When Lily's fierce-hearted "stand-in mother," Rosaleen, insults three of the town's fiercest racists, Lily decides they should both escape to Tiburon, South Carolina--a town that holds the secret to her mother's past. There they are taken in by an eccentric trio of black beekeeping sisters who introduce Lily to a mesmerizing world of bees, honey, and the Black Madonna who presides over their household. This is a remarkable story about divine female power and the transforming power of love--a story that women will share and pass on to their daughters for years to come.

Amazon.com Review
In Sue Monk Kidd's The Secret Life of Bees, 14-year-old Lily Owen, neglected by her father and isolated on their South Carolina peach farm, spends hours imagining a blissful infancy when she was loved and nurtured by her mother, Deborah, whom she barely remembers. These consoling fantasies are her heart's answer to the family story that as a child, in unclear circumstances, Lily accidentally shot and killed her mother. All Lily has left of Deborah is a strange image of a Black Madonna, with the words "Tiburon, South Carolina" scrawled on the back. The search for a mother, and the need to mother oneself, are crucial elements in this well-written coming-of-age story set in the early 1960s against a background of racial violence and unrest. When Lily's beloved nanny, Rosaleen, manages to insult a group of angry white men on her way to register to vote and has to skip town, Lily takes the opportunity to go with her, fleeing to the only place she can think of--Tiburon, South Carolina--determined to find out more about her dead mother. Although the plot threads are too neatly trimmed, The Secret Life of Bees is a carefully crafted novel with an inspired depiction of character. The legend of the Black Madonna and the brave, kind, peculiar women who perpetuate Lily's story dominate the second half of the book, placing Kidd's debut novel squarely in the honored tradition of the Southern Gothic. --Regina Marler

CUSTOMER REVIEWS (Average Customer Rating: 4.0 based on 1511 reviews)

The Secret Life of Bees by Joan C. Oliver (WA)

5 Stars
October 30, 2009
Great book--because I read it I saw the movie, too. I must say the movie has the sisters as too young and the young girl, Lily, as too old. The book is better.

The Secret Life of Bees by Kathleen Cramer (Azusa, CA)

5 Stars
October 27, 2009
I loved this book. Sue Monk Kidd wrote with such wonderful descriptions of the characters as well as the surrounding environment and incidents as they took place. I really felt like I was there in the hot pink house, present during the Daughters of Mary events. I loved the presentation of August, May, and June and how August was the queen bee in the story. Even though the story centered around Lily and her quest to find out about her mother, it took August to hold it all together. And it was so relevant for the period when it was to have taken place. I loved it!

A good book by M. A. Pietrzykowski (Reading, Pa, USA)

5 Stars
October 21, 2009
This was a really good book. I saw the movie first and liked it. But I liked the book much better.

A little slow to arrive... by Stephen J. Jackson

3 Stars
October 11, 2009
Book arrived in good shape, but took a lot longer than most Amazon orders.

ninth grade student enjoying required book by SLP in VA

4 Stars
October 11, 2009
My son was required to purchase this book for school in ninth grade. He is reading and enjoying this book which says a lot as often boys do not enjoy the books on the required reading lists for school. Proud parent

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