THE NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER
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The Secret Life of Bees
by Sue Monk Kidd

"Sue Monk Kidd's eccentric, inventive, and ultimately forgiving novel is reminiscent of the work of Reynolds Price in its ability to create a truly original Southern voice."
-Anita Shreve

"This is the story of a young girl's journey toward healing, and of finding, at its end, not only wholeness, but the intrinsic sacredness of living in the world. I think it is simply wonderful."
-Anne Rivers Siddons

"A moving first novel…Lily is an authentic and winning character and her story is compellingly told. The bees presage her journey toward self-acceptance, faith and freedom that is at the heart of this novel."
--USA Today

An intoxicating debut novel of "one motherless daughter's discovery of. . .the strange and wondrous place we find love."
-The Washington Post

Sue Monk Kidd's ravishing debut novel has stolen the hearts of reviewers and readers alike with its strong, assured voice. Chosen as Good Morning America's "Read This!" pick in October of 2002, as the Southeastern Booksellers Association Book of Year and nominated for the BookSense Book of the Year Award (to be announced at BEA), THE SECRET LIFE OF BEES (Penguin, January 28, 2003, $14.00, 320 pages) is the story of Lily Owens, a girl who has shaped her life around one devastating memory-the afternoon her mother was killed, when Lily was four. Besides her harsh and unyielding father, Lily's only real companion is Rosaleen, a tender, but fierce-hearted black woman who cooks, cleans and acts as her "stand-in mother."

One summer afternoon in 1964 in South Carolina-a place and time of seething racial divides-violence explodes and Rosaleen is arrested and beaten. Lily is desperate, not only to save Rosaleen, but to flee from a life she can no longer endure. Calling upon her youthful daring, she breaks Rosaleen out of jail and the two escape, into what quickly becomes Lily's quest for the truth about her mother's life.

They are taken in by three black, beekeeping sisters, May, June, and August, and Lily is consumed by their secret world of bees and honey, and of the Black Madonna who presides over this household of strong, wise women. Lily's journey is one of painful secrets and shattering betrayals but it is a passage that ultimately helps her find the thing her heart longs for most.

THE SECRET LIFE OF BEES allows us into a world apart-in a novel whose strong, irresistible voice catches us up and doesn't let go. THE SECRET LIFE OF BEES is a mesmerizing novel about the divine power of women, of women with extraordinary gifts coping with loss and finding forgiveness and especially, learning to forgive themselves. It is the kind of novel women share with each other, and that mothers and daughters will be sharing for years to come.

About the author:
Sue Monk Kidd is the author of two widely acclaimed non-fiction books, The Dance of the Dissident Daughter and When the Heart Waits. She has won a Poets and Writers Award for the story that began this novel as well as a Katherine Ann Porter Award, and a Breadloaf Scholarship. Her fiction has appeared in several literary journals, and two of her short stories, including an excerpt from THE SECRET LIFE OF BEES, were selected as notable stories in Best American Short Stories. She lives beside a salt marsh near Charleston, South Carolina. THE SECRET LIFE OF BEES is her first novel. The film rights for THE SECRET LIFE OF BEES have been optioned by Lauren Shuler Donner, producer of You've Got Mail and other major films. Sue Monk Kidd is at work on her new novel, The Mermaid Chair.

The Secret Life of Bees
By Sue Monk Kidd
Penguin
Price: $14.00
Publication date: January 28, 2003
ISBN: 0-14-200174-0
www.suemonkkidd.com

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