The Bees: A Novel

by Laline Paull

  For support in many forms: Isabelle Grey, Heidi Berry, Kate Duthie, Sasha Slorer, Debs Shuter, Debra Gonzalez, Maggie Doherty, Linda King, Emmy Minton, Megan and Danis Dauksta, Janet Lyon, Emerald-Jane Turner, Sarah Kowitz, and for his words dronewood and dronesong, Sean Borodale.

  For lighting my path: Professor Julia Briggs and beekeeper Angie Biltcliffe.

  Love and thanks to my family, including early reader Gordon Paull; early listener Rider Peacock (who advised more violence); Jackson Peacock (for his sketch of the hive); and most of all to my daughter, India Rose, for all the ways in which she has enabled me to write this book.

  Finally, my love and gratitude to my husband, Adrian Peacock: for everything.

  About the Author

  LALINE PAULL studied English at Oxford, screenwriting in Los Angeles, and theater in London. She lives in England with her husband, photographer Adrian Peacock, and their three children.

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  Credits

  Cover design by Steve Attardo

  Cover artwork: detail of “Bees and Bee-keeping,” from The Young Landsman, (Vienna, 1845), photographed by Matthias Trentsensky © by the Bridgeman Art Library/Getty Images

  Copyright

  This book is a work of fiction. The characters, incidents, and dialogue are drawn from the author’s imagination and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to actual events or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

  THE BEES. Copyright © 2014 by Laline Paull. All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the nonexclusive, nontransferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse-engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins e-books.

  FIRST EDITION

  Frontispiece: Bee illustrations from Meyers Konversations-Lexikon 1897 / Shutterstock, Inc.

  Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data has been applied for.

  ISBN 978-0-06-233115-1

  EPUB Edition MAY 2014 ISBN 9780062331168

  14 15 16 17 18 OV/RRD 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

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