As a young child, Meridia had a realization: she and her parents were never, all three, in a room together at the same time. Her vague and opaquely verbose mother and brusque father did not speak directly to each other and did not comment on Meridia's remembered dream of a sparkling silver thing that scared her, the constant chill of the house, nor even the mists that assaulted their front stoop and into which her father disappeared.
Leaving her home to marry was to be a delight, a joyous freedom into adulthood and a truly familial atmosphere. Quickly Meridia realized that every family has secret twists and turns: some families may be wrapped with chill fogs, while others are battered by persuasive bees.
Like the best of DeLint's work, OF BEES AND MIST is an amazing tale of generational relationships, personal development and well-crafted narration filled with symbolism and beauty. This is a fabulous book for readers looking for an excellent story told in a richly-created world that bears a close resemblance to our own...and an even closer resemblance to bedtime stories and fairy tales.
Raised in a sepulchral house where ghosts dwell in mirrors, Meridia grows up lonely and miserable. But at age sixteen, she has a chance at happiness when she falls in love with Daniel-a caring and naive young man. Soon they marry, and Meridia can finally escape to live with her husband's family, unaware that they harbor dark secrets of their own. There is a grave hidden in the garden, there are two sisters groomed from birth to despise each other, and there is Eva-the formidable matriarch and the wickedest mother-in-law imaginable-whose grievances swarm the air in an army of bees. As Meridia struggles to keep her life and marriage together, she discovers long-buried secrets about her own past as well as shocking truths about her new family that inexorably push her love, courage, and sanity to the brink.
Of Bees and Mist is an engrossing fable that chronicles three generations of women under one family tree over a period of thirty years-their galvanic love and passion, their shifting alliances, their superstitions and complex domestic politics-and places them in a mythical town where spirits and spells, witchcraft and demons, and prophets and clairvoyance are an everyday reality. Erick Setiawan's astonishing debut is a richly atmospheric and tumultuous ride of hope and heartbreak that is altogether touching, truthful, and entirely memorable.
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