A Recipe for Bees

· Vintage Canada
Ebook
320
Pages

About this ebook

International Bestseller

Shortlisted for the 1998 Giller Prize

A Globe and Mail Notable Book of 1998

Over 40,000 copies sold in hardcover

In A Recipe for Bees, Gail Anderson-Dargatz gives readers a remarkable woman to stand beside Hagar Shipley and Daisy Goodwin — but Augusta Olsen also has attitude, a wicked funny bone, and the dubious gift of second sight.

At home in Courtenay, B.C., Augusta anxiously awaits news of her dearly loved son-in-law Gabe, who is undergoing brain surgery miles away in Victoria. Her best friend Rose is waiting for Augusta to call as soon as she hears. Through Rose, we begin to learn the story of Augusta's sometimes harsh, sometimes magical life: the startling vision of her mother's early death; the loneliness of her marriage to Karl and her battle with Karl's detestable father, Olaf. We are told of her gentle, platonic affair with a church minister, of her not-so-platonic affair with a man from the town, and the birth of her only child. We also learn of the special affinity between Rose and Augusta, who share the delights and exasperations of old age.

Just as The Cure for Death by Lightning offers recipes and remedies, A Recipe for Bees is saturated with bee lore, and is full of rich domestic detail, wondrous imagery culled from rural kitchens and gardens, shining insights into ageing, family and friendship. And at its heart, is the life, death and resurrection of an extraordinary marriage

About the author

Gail Anderson-Dargatz has been published worldwide in English and in many other languages in more than 15 territories. The Cure for Death by Lightning and A Recipe for Bees were international bestsellers and were both finalists for the prestigious Giller Prize. The Cure for Death by Lightning won the UK’s Betty Trask Prize, the BC Book Prize for Fiction, and the VanCity Book Prize. Her other books include A Rhinestone ButtonTurtle Valley, and The Spawning Grounds. She lives in the Shuswap in south-central British Columbia, the landscape found in so much of her writing.

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