The Murmur of Bees by Sofía Segovia, translated by Simon Bruni, is a rich story about the small Mexican town of Linares and the birth of the 'orange belt' in Nuevo Léon. It all begins when old Nana Reja, the blind woman who never leaves her rocking chair, finds a disfigured, abandoned infant covered in a blanket of bees. From that moment, Simonopio and his bees become a fixture of the land. And his visions, his instinct for what's around him, the insights the bees whisper in his ear, will save the family time and time again.
It's a rich story that covers a lot of real history—the Mexican Revolution, the 1918 flu and its devastating toll, the birth of Mexico's orange groves, and more. It could have been tighter at times—I feel confident it could have been under 400 pages—but was a compelling read. The rich brotherhood between Simonopio and Francisco Junior, Simonopio's enigmatic but wholehearted, passionate love for his adopted family, and the strength and anxious work of brilliant matriarch Beatriz, all power the book forward. It's all about their relationships and its turns, all about the scent of orange blossoms and the buzzing of bees. Sofía Segovia is a writer worth keeping an eye on.
Content warnings for parent death, infant death, ableism, pandemic, animal cruelty, child abuse, sexual assault, violence, grief.
