The Bee Sting by Paul Murray is a piece of contemporary literary fiction—a family tragicomedy set around 2008 in Ireland and published in 2023. Paul Murray is the bestselling author of An Evening of Long Goodbyes (2003), Skippy Dies (2010), The Mark and the Void (2015), and The Bee Sting. The Bee Sting was nominated for the An Post Award (2023) and shortlisted for the 2023 Booker Prize.

This guide is based on the 2023 Farrar, Straus & Giroux edition of The Bee Sting.

Content Warning: This guide discusses the novel’s treatment of death and grief, sexual abuse, anti-gay bias, physical abuse, alcohol addiction, and gun violence.

Plot Summary

In a small town in Ireland right after the financial crash of 2008, the Barnes family struggles to keep their lives together. The family includes patriarch and car dealer Dickie, his wife Imelda, and their children Cassie (Cass) and PJ.

In Part 1, “Sylvias,” Cass, who is in her last year of high school, discovers the power of writing and reading poetry. Cass is desperately in love with her best friend Elaine, but she is in denial about her emotions. Elaine’s life looks perfect—she’s rich, beautiful, smart, and interesting. When Elaine gets distracted from studying in favor of partying with boys, Cass follows her lead. On one of their nights out, Elaine and Cass meet a handsome and mysterious man named Ryszard. Ryszard is looking for work as a mechanic, so Cass recommends her father’s garage. Cass and Elaine bring Ryszard to the Barneses’ abandoned shed deep in the woods, where Ryszard tries to hook up with both girls. Part 1 ends with Cass taking the Leaving Certificate, nervous that she hasn’t studied enough.

In Part 2, “Wolf’s Lair,” 12-year-old PJ feels alone. His friends are ignoring him, and he is frightened of the fighting in his house. His father used to be fun but is now quick to anger and distant. One day, PJ is assaulted by a bully nicknamed Ears who accuses Dickie of stealing 163 euros from his mother. In terror of Ears, PJ makes plans with Ethan, a friend he made online, to run away to Dublin.

When Dickie’s wealthy father Maurice comes to visit, Imelda hopes to ask him for money to send Cass to university and to fix the family’s financial crisis.

Part 3, “The Widow Bride,” switches to Imelda’s stream-of-consciousness narration. Imelda asks Maurice for money, convincing him by being her beautiful and charming self. Maurice agrees to help, but to Imelda’s frustration and disappointment, he brings in Elaine’s father Big Mike, a wealthy cattle farmer, to help with the dealership. Imelda doesn’t trust Big Mike and resents his newfound power and influence. Big Mike and Maurice discover startling truths about the business: Valuable car parts have been stolen from customers, and Ryszard is the prime suspect; also, a huge sum is missing from an account only Dickie has access to.

The novel flashes back to Imelda’s past. Imelda grows up poor; her father violently abuses her brothers but spares her because she is beautiful. As a teenager, Imelda is brought to live with Rose, a local fortune teller and healer. Imelda’s life changes when she meets Frank Barnes, the handsome star of the local Gaelic football team. Imelda quickly understands that to be with Frank, she needs to impress Maurice, the wealthy owner of a local car garage. Similarly, Frank ingratiates himself to Imelda’s father. Frank and Imelda fall madly in love. Maurice is tough on Frank, and the stress of expectations drives Frank to drink; he loses the biggest football match of the season. Desperate to be with Frank, Imelda turns to Maurice for help. Maurice gets Frank successfully involved in the car dealership, and Frank and Imelda get engaged. Soon, Rose has a disturbing vision of Imelda’s wedding; days after this vision, Frank dies in a car accident.

Frank’s older brother Dickie returns to town for the funeral. Dickie and Imelda turn to one another for comfort and begin a sexual relationship. Imelda becomes pregnant and quickly marries Dickie even though she’s not in love with him.

Part 4, “The Clearing,” focuses on Dickie, who avoids his father and works on survivalist construction projects in the woods. When Big Mike offers to take over running the business, Dickie is relieved; he never wanted to manage his father’s dealership anyway.

The novel flashes back to Dickie’s past. Despite being older, Dickie lives in Frank’s shadow. Frank is a loveable popular athlete, whereas the clever and complicated Dickie is often bullied. He moves to Dublin to attend Trinity College, where he gets close to a student named Willie, a popular debater with the Historical Society. Dickie and Willie fall in love and are happy together. Meanwhile, Frank starts dating Imelda and is interested in taking over the family business; Dickie is supportive because he wants to live in Dublin with Willie. When Frank has second thoughts about marrying Imelda and wants to move to England, Dickie convinces Frank to go through with the wedding. After Frank dies, Dickie blames himself. Dickie sees marrying Imelda as a way of taking responsibility for his part in Frank’s death. Willie is devastated, as is Dickie, but they break up.

Years later, Dickie is happy to be a father and a provider. The financial crash puts a strain on this happiness, as does Dickie’s burgeoning sense that he has wasted his life. Dickie makes a fake profile on Facebook to reach out to Willie; in Dublin, he and Willie see one another but don’t speak. Dejected, Dickie begins a sexual relationship with Ryszard. When Dickie tries to fire him for stealing, Ryszard extorts Dickie with recordings of them having sex in his office.

Part 5, “Age of Loneliness,” chronicles the family’s reconciliation. PJ runs away from home and goes to Cass in Dublin. Dickie has grown distant from PJ because Ryszard has contacted him again for money, this time with links to porn websites with their sex tapes. Meanwhile, Elaine and Cass are in a fight, so when PJ shows up, Cass angrily tells him to leave. Cass chases after PJ when she realizes what she’s done, but he’s nowhere to be seen.

Imelda has been having an emotional affair with Big Mike and is considering becoming physically intimate. Unexpectedly, Imelda’s long-lost but beloved brother Lar shows up. Her family moved to England after Imelda’s wedding. Their father is dead. There are no photos from her wedding to Dickie because she had worn a veil the entire time; she claimed that she had been stung in the face by a bee, but actually her father had found out she was pregnant and punched her in the face. Imelda decides that it’s her time to be happy. She wants to tell Dickie about her plans to have sex with Big Mike before going through with the act.

PJ gets lost in Dublin and texts Ethan, who offers to pick him up. When Ethan turns out to be an old man, PJ runs away and takes shelter in a shop, where Cass finds him. Cass and PJ board a bus to return home. Meanwhile, Dickie’s assistant Victor has convinced Dickie to get rid of Ryszard. They concoct a plan to meet Ryszard at the Bunker and shoot him with Victor’s hunting rifle.

That night, the rain is pouring down violently. PJ and Cass get off the bus and run through the forest toward their house. Imelda also runs through the forest, searching for Dickie. As she runs, she realizes all the ways Dickie has been a good father.

When Dickie sees two figures in the dark rain, he prepares the gun to shoot.