McKay's Bees: A Novel

“An impressively original novel. . . . comic in its vision [yet] serious, constantly surprising in its twists of plot and its reflections upon life.” —Wall Street Journal

Moving from Massachusetts to Kansas in 1855 with his new wife and a group of German carpenters, Gordon McKay is dead set on making his fortune raising bees—undaunted by Missouri border ruffians, newly-minted Darwinism, or the unsettled politics of a country on the brink of civil war. “Humorous and generous yet sometimes disconcertingly fatalistic, McMahon's storytelling is based on an irresistible curiosity about how the world works..” —Alida Becker, New York Times Book Review

“Truly a gem—an elegantly simple construct full of light and surprise.” —Jean Strouse, Newsweek

“A literary miracle--a tale defying gravity and all manner of other rules that ground the narratives of most storytellers.” —Douglas Bauer, Boston Globe

“McMahon, in such a short novel, should not have been able to bring coherence out of Darwin and Lincoln, bees and machines, East and West, honey and blood. . . . That he manages—that wit, irony, gentleness, passion, and knowledge conspire so successfully—is a wonder of craft.” —John Leonard, New York Times

“[McMahon's novels] combine sophisticated scientific lore with a well-developed sense of human-ness. They are learned, funny, spiritual, and sexy. It would not be disgraceful to compare them with the work of Gabriel Garcia Marquez. Indeed, McMahon is a kind of Yankee magic realist, mixing the fantastic with the ordinary so seamlessly.” —Toronto Globe & Mail

© 2024 The University of Chicago Press (Ebook): 9780226561158

Release date

Ebook: 31 May 2024