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teresatumminello 's review for:
The Ardent Swarm
by Yamen Manai
3.5
The story is mostly set in an unnamed Arabic-speaking country (the author is Tunisian) a few years after Arab Spring. Democracy is new and fundamentalism is already trying to move in. Other predators are creeping in as well. An elderly beekeeper is desperate to determine how his beloved honeybees were killed by the so-called murder hornets; where the hornets came from; and what can be done to stop them.
The book was first published in its original language (French) in 2017 and is a timely translation, at least for the U.S. Before last year, I doubt most Americans had heard of “murder hornets.” At the start of this year, we should’ve recognized, if we hadn’t already, the dangers of authoritarianism to our country. A theme arising from the story is the danger of insularity.
This, the March read for The Nervous Breakdown Book Club, is an easily read, often charming little novel. The nice look of the pages is a bonus.
The story is mostly set in an unnamed Arabic-speaking country (the author is Tunisian) a few years after Arab Spring. Democracy is new and fundamentalism is already trying to move in. Other predators are creeping in as well. An elderly beekeeper is desperate to determine how his beloved honeybees were killed by the so-called murder hornets; where the hornets came from; and what can be done to stop them.
The book was first published in its original language (French) in 2017 and is a timely translation, at least for the U.S. Before last year, I doubt most Americans had heard of “murder hornets.” At the start of this year, we should’ve recognized, if we hadn’t already, the dangers of authoritarianism to our country. A theme arising from the story is the danger of insularity.
This, the March read for The Nervous Breakdown Book Club, is an easily read, often charming little novel. The nice look of the pages is a bonus.