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Paul Murray is the author of four acclaimed novels: An Evening of Long Goodbyes, Skippy Dies, The Mark and the Void and The Bee Sting. He has been shortlisted for multiple awards, including the Whitbread First Novel Award, the Kerry Group Irish Fiction Award, the Costa Novel Award, the National Book Critics Circle Award, and was longlisted for the Booker Prize in 2010. The Mark and the Void won the Everyman Wodehouse Prize in 2016. His latest novel, The Bee Sting, navigates a family facing calamity in the wake of the financial crash, with irony, panging emotion and existential tones. It is a masterful tragicomedy of varying levels of familial chaos and dynamics. The Bee Sting is shortlisted for Eason Novel of the Year 2023.
Tell us a bit about your latest novel?
It’s set in a town in the Midlands in 2014, at the tail end of the financial crash. The Barnes family has a car dealership – they’ve just about managed to survive until now, but as the novel begins the business is on the brink of going under, and the family may be going down with it.
Each of the family members takes a turn to tell the story. Cass, 17, goes first, then her brother, PJ, who’s 12, then Imelda, their mother, and lastly, Dickie, the dad. They all have their own stories going on – Cass, for instance, is about to do her leaving, and she’s hoping to escape to college in Dublin with her best friend Elaine. But things are so bad at home that she starts to get sidetracked – staying out all night with absolutely the wrong people. The other family members have similar trajectories – that is, each of them wants to escape, but the safe space they’re trying to get to turns out to be worse than where they are.
Where did the inspiration for this novel come from? What is the story behind its conception?
I’m interested in how people relate to the past. I feel that, in Ireland, where there’s been so much hardship, we’ve become very good at burying things we prefer not to think about. When the Celtic Tiger came along, it seemed to offer us, as a nation, a chance to create – or to buy! – a whole new story, a whole new identity, for ourselves. Then the crash happened and we were back where we started. The Barnes family have a lot of past to deal with, and they’re discovering that they can't outrun it.
What do you hope readers will take away from your narrative?
I feel like life would work out so much better for the family if they’d only learn to trust each other and start communicating. Near the end, one of the supporting characters says, ‘You can’t love someone wearing a mask’, and that would be one of the takeaways.
How does it feel to be on this shortlist amongst so many other brilliant authors?
It’s an honour to be nominated for an award, especially alongside these gifted writers.
Ireland is a literary powerhouse. Why do you think this is?
So many reasons – I think ultimately because Irish people like stories – like telling stories, like listening to stories, like reading books. Fabulation is in the air.
Who are your favourite Irish writers?
Too numerous to mention. Recently I read a fantastic memoir called Gamelife by Michael Clune – he lives and works in the US but he was born here in Ireland, so I think we can claim him as ours.
What An Post Irish Book Awards shortlisted book is next on your to-be-read pile?
Again, there are too many great books to set down here. To pick two: The Red Bird Sings by Aoife Fitzpatrick and The Grass Ceiling by Eimear Ryan.
Explore the Eason Novel of the Year Shortlist here.