Ironsworn: Starforged Assets

Shortlisted for 2023 Booker Prize & 2023 Nero Book Award for Fiction Winner of the 2023 An Post Irish Book AwardFinalist, 2023 Kirkus Prize for Fiction Booker judges said, “Paul Murray’s saga, THE BEE STING, set in the Irish Midlands, brilliantly explores how our secrets & self-deceptions ultimately catch up with us. This family drama, told from multiple perspectives, is at once hilarious & heartbreaking, personal & epic. It’s an addictive read.” °°° From the author of Skippy Dies comes Paul Murray's The Bee Sting , an irresistibly funny, wise, & thought-provoking tour de force about family, fortune,’ the struggle to be a good person when the world is falling apart.The Barnes family is in trouble. Dickie’s once-lucrative car business is going under―but rather than face the music, he’s spending his days in the woods, building an apocalypse-proof bunker with a renegade handyman. His wife Imelda is selling off her jewelry on eBay, while their teenage daughter Cass, formerly top of her class, seems determined to binge-drink her way through her final exams. And 12-year-old PJ is putting the final touches to his grand plan to run away from home.If you wanted to change this story, how far back would you have to go? Where did it all go wrong? To the infamous bee sting that ruined Imelda’s wedding day? To the car crash one year before Cass was born? All the way back to Dickie at 10 years old, standing in the summer garden with his father, learning how to be a real man? A patch of ice on the tarmac, a casual favor to a charming stranger―can a single moment of bad luck change the direction of a life? And if the story has already been written―is there still time to find a happy ending?The Bee Sting, Paul Murray’s exuberantly entertaining new novel, is a tour de force: a portrait of postcrash Ireland, a tragicomic family saga, & a dazzling story about the struggle to be good at the end of the world. One of The New York Times T op 10 Books of 2023 Winner of the An Post Irish Book of the Year 2023 and the 2023 Nero Book Award for Fiction Shortlisted for the 2023 Booker Prize and the 2024 Writers' Prize for Fiction Finalist for the 2023 Kirkus Prize for Fiction One of The New Yorker 's Essential Reads of 2023. One of The Washington Post's 10 Best Books of 2023. One of TIME's 10 Best Fiction Books of the Year. Named a Best Book of the Year by NPR, The Guardian , The Economist , New York Public Library, BBC , and more. From the author of Skippy Dies comes Paul Murray's The Bee Sting , an irresistibly funny, wise, and thought-provoking tour de force about family, fortune, and the struggle to be a good person when the world is falling apart. The Barnes family is in trouble. Dickie's once-lucrative car business is going under—but Dickie is spending his days in the woods, building an apocalypse-proof bunker with a renegade handyman. His wife, Imelda, is selling off her jewelry on eBay and half-heartedly dodging the attention of fast-talking cattle farmer Big Mike, while their teenage daughter, Cass, formerly top of her class, seems determined to binge drink her way through her final exams. As for twelve-year-old PJ, he's on the brink of running away. If you wanted to change this story, how far back would you have to go? To the infamous bee sting that ruined Imelda's wedding day? To the car crash one year before Cass was born? All the way back to Dickie at ten years old, standing in the summer garden with his father, learning how to be a real man? The Bee Sting , Paul Murray's exuberantly entertaining new novel, is a tour de force: a portrait of postcrash Ireland, a tragicomic family saga, and a dazzling story about the struggle to be good at the end of the world.