A review by jencunn2024
The Murmur of Bees by Sofía Segovia

3.0

This novel is fantastic but long. I am giving it only 3 stars because I think it could have been more succinct and still had the emotional impact. It was just too long with some dry spells. However, it is absolutely a wonderful tale filled with fable, legend, and superstition and told in oral narrative style. The story follows five protagonists, one in first person and the other four in third person. The reason the novel is so long is that you get different perspectives of the same events, but there is great value and advantage to the reader in having those extra insights. The timeline includes the Spanish flu and Mexican migration and agriculture from early to kid-century (20th) across several generations. I loved Segova’s subtle inclusions of Catholicism and as well as alternative beliefs and cultural practices. She stresses mysticism, faith, the natural, the supernatural and miracles. There is an element of magical realism throughout, very much a part of Mexican tradition. It starts with the story of the grandmother finding an abandoned baby and taking him on to raise him as hers. The boy has a birth defect and brings with him a warm of bees. Quickly labeled by society as a devil’s child, he and his newly adopted family will soon convince you otherwise. And yes, you do learn about the bees and their murmur. In addition, there is socio-political and criminal mayhem adding to the mystery.