Here is the Beehive cover art

Here is the Beehive

Shortlisted for Popular Fiction Book of the Year in the AN Post Irish Book Awards

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Here is the Beehive

By: Sarah Crossan
Narrated by: Sarah Crossan
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Bloomsbury presents Here is the Beehive written and read by Sarah Crossan.

SHORTLISTED FOR THE AN POST IRISH BOOK AWARD

What would you do if you lost someone the world never knew was yours?

For three years, Ana has been consumed by an affair with Connor, a client at her law firm. Their love has been consigned to hotel rooms and dark corners of pubs, keeping their relationship hidden from the world. So the morning that Ana’s company receives a call to say that Connor is dead, her secret grief has nowhere to go. Desperate for an outlet, Ana seeks out the shadowy figure who has always stood just beyond her reach – Connor's wife Rebecca…

'Utterly gripping' RODDY DOYLE
'A triumph – crackling with psychological and sexual ambiguity' JULIE MYERSON, OBSERVER
'This book is just sublime… I loved every page’ CAITRIONA BALFE
'Unmissable ... Incredible' STYLIST
‘Amazing ... I read it in one sitting, completely swept up in Ana’s fragmented narrative' EMMA HEALEY
'Dark, riveting, powerful' ELIZABETH DAY©2023 Sarah Crossan (P)2023 Bloomsbury Publishing PLC Death, Grief & Loss Family Life Fiction Genre Fiction Literary Fiction Poetry Themes & Styles Women's Fiction Marriage
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Critic reviews

Amazing ... I absolutely love the form, which breathes new life into a familiar story making it both more elegant and more brutal. I read it in one sitting, completely swept up in Ana’s fragmented narrative (EMMA HEALEY)
My god, it’s stunning ... Sarah is such a magnificent writer (CECELIA AHERN)
An evocative portrait of marriage and adultery, Crossan's adult fiction debut explores the singular agony of losing someone the world can never know was yours’ (WATERSTONES, Best Books of 2020: Debut Fiction)
A gutsy, modern, deeply entertaining and, at times, faintly subversive-feeling piece of work. It’s also entirely and likably original in its execution, quite unlike anything I’ve read before … the writing is so bright and alive and the novel is a triumph – crackling with psychological and sexual ambiguity (JULIE MYERSON)
Brilliant ... An adult tale of love, betrayal and loss
Excellent ... An eviscerating account of modern marriage
Sex, work and motherhood all come under the microscope in this vivid portrait of the agony of being "the other woman"
This lyrical account of an adulterous affair and its brutal aftermath is all the more effective and affecting for the spare, sparse style and I expect it to win as many awards as Sarah Crossan’s YA fiction has done
A riveting tale of infidelity and obsession, told in verse form. Perfect for the staycation sunlounger (ELIZABETH DAY)
Composed in free verse, psychologically acute and laced with complicated emotions, this is a gripping, gorgeously written exploration of what it means to be in an obsessive, destructive relationship
A gripping, voyeuristic read that gallops along
I absolutely gobbled it up: dark, riveting, powerful ... Delivers on a whole new level (ELIZABETH DAY)
A stunner
Raw, emotional and wistful
I read this stunning book standing up in two hours. An eviscerating take on marriage and adultery (ERIN KELLY)
A beautifully crafted sucker punch of a read. Sarah Crossan has always had an exquisite way with words and in this she uses poetic prose to craft an honest and oftentimes gritty exploration of two intertwined marriages, slowly unravelling. Painfully believable, passionate and occasionally heartbreaking, Here is the Beehive provides further proof that Sarah Crossan is an infinitely gifted writer. We're lucky to have her (JAN CARSON)
We can't recommend this enough
A searing portrait of addictive love and grief and the devastation human beings can wreak on each other ... It is an addictive read, painful, unsettling, full of uncomfortable truths, yet the work itself resounds with its own unique bleak beauty (LISA HARDING)
Devastatingly honest, heartbreaking and tender ... This is the most extraordinary novel I have read in years in form, ambition and scope - an incredible achievement and an instant classic. I will read it again and again (JANE CASEY)
All stars
Most relevant
Too short maybe? Other than that there is nothing else to comment on. Thank you

Beautifully read. Made the story come to life

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What a book! I loved it! I was fully absorbed from start to finish. My first Sarah Crossan book - definitely not my last.

Excelled

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well told story, use of descriptive language brought scenes to life. .. left with an overwhelming sense of sadness

a sad tale, well told

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The theme of a married woman's affair with a married man ending with his death is not a new one! But this is strikingly original - a scouring out of the soul into words.

It's written in verse, but had I not seen the little extract of the printed page online, I wouldn't have realised although I would have responded to the jumbled impressionistic cameos from past and present times, the lyricism, the 'poetic' imagery, the mellifluous sounds of the words, the repetitions like refrains... How different reading the lines would have made, I'm not sure but I certainly don't think it loses any of its power on audio, partly because Sarah Crossan herself reads it and she knows her own nuances, moods and totally real dialogue.

Ana, a solicitor and mother of two small children and wife to Paul, has been having an affair with Conor for three years. And for these three years of shared intensely torrid sexual passion snatched in weekends and hours away from his wife Rebecca and his children, Conor has promised he'll leave them for Ana. Ana's own fraught childhood is beautifully recreated with few words, the deft economy of poetry. Her sister tells her 'You're an accident. Mummy didn't want you'; her father's temper is frightening. There is no judgement of either Ana or Conor for their betrayals, but a visceral portrait of the pure ecstasy of their relationship - and the hideous realities of its manifold ripples of destruction of themselves and others.

The poetry-form is a clever way of purifying the essence of the whole affair. Can a woman with a husband and two small children and a fulltime job as a solicitor REALLY have the TIME for a 3 year affair with a heavily-married man? The poetry form is so enveloping that such thoughts are irrelevant, as are the lovers' children.

I've listened to it twice - I'm sure 3rd or 4th listenings would yield fresh detail. Don't miss it!


The agony and the ecstasy

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