I regularly start reading a new book with a mix of excitement and trepidation. The prospect of getting lost in a whole new story or acquiring new knowledge and skills is always exciting. But what if it doesn’t live up to expectations and I’m forced to abandon it after a few hours or days? It happens a lot and my book shelves are littered with half-read books I gave up on. Fortunately they are outnumbered by the excellent ones I devoured. 

I knew The Bee Sting by Paul Murray would fit easily into the latter category within minutes of opening it. It was immediately funny and tragic, it raced off at breakneck speed while also dealing with deep, thoughtful and emotional issues. It was called an “instant classic” by the Washington Post on release and “astute and remorselessly funny” by The Mirror. It’s got an average rating of 3.88 on Goodreads, where more than 130,000 people have rated it. 

The novel centres on the Barnes family who live in an unnamed small town in Ireland. Until recently dad Dickie had run a successful family car sales business, taken over from his father, the larger-than-life Maurice. But Dickie’s marriage to Imelda is hanging by a thread and the business is on the brink of collapse, threatening their beautiful home. 

Meanwhile, their daughter, Cass, has spiralled from a straight-A student to a party girl whose life is threatening to go off the rails and their son, PJ, is in debt to a violent local bully while also in an ominous texting relationship with a stranger. And looming over them all are Dickie’s brother, Frank, who was once Imelda’s first love, and Imelda’s father, a hard-drinking and short-tempered former bare-knuckle boxer who loves nothing more than showing his old fighting videos to the few guests daft enough to visit his house. 

Many critics have compared The Bee Sting to Jonathan Franzen’s The Corrections, often referenced as the standard of sprawling, family-centred social novels. It is littered with moments that seem fleeting when you’re trying to keep up with the runaway train-pace of the novel but are profound enough to still be with you when you wake up the next morning. And every character is thoroughly convincing.

The Bee Sting was shortlisted for the 2023 Booker Prize and won the 2024 Nero Book Award. Reviewing the novel for The Guardian, Justine Jordan wrote “You won’t read a sadder, truer, funnier novel this year” while Jonathan Russell Clark in the Los Angeles Times wrote: “The agility with which Murray structures the narrative around the family at its heart is virtuosic and sure-footed, evidence of a writer at the height of his power deftly shifting perspectives, style and syntax to maximize emotional impact. Hilarious and sardonic, heartbreaking and beautiful — there’s just no other way to put it: ‘The Bee Sting’ is a masterpiece.”

Another excellent book I’ve read this year is Anthony Hopkins’s autobiography, We Did OK, Kid. In it, the Oscar-winning megastar from Wales writes with a mixture of vulnerability and toughness, bewilderment and confidence, about how he grew from a child  from the working class town of Port Talbot who was often told he was good for nothing to the multi-millionaire Hollywood star he is today.