In Sue Monk Kidd's novel, The Secret Life of Bees, lonely 14-year-old Lily Owen spends her days imagining a happy childhood with her mother, Deborah, who she can barely remember. At night in her room, she is visited by a swarm of bees who vanish without a trace, a phenomena Lily likens to the Angel Gabriel’s visit to the Virgin Mary. However, the reality of Lily’s life is much different - abused and neglected in turns by her father, T. Ray, and isolated on their southern peach farm, Lily has grown up with the family story that when she was four-years-old, she accidentally shot and killed her mother.

While Lily spends much of her time dreaming, reading and thinking of a career as a writer, Rosaleen, the warm-hearted black woman T. Ray hired to raise Lily, is preparing for the future. The Civil Rights bill has just been passed and Rosaleen has been practicing her signature in preparation to register to vote. When three white men insult Rosaleen on her way into town, she stands up to them – and is jailed and beaten. At this point Lily realizes she must act, and leaves town with the injured Rosaleen.

All Lily has left of Deborah is a strange image of a black Madonna, with the words "Tiburon, South Carolina" scrawled on the back. This leads the two women to the headquarters of Black Madonna Honey, produced by three black bee-keeping sisters, August, June and May Boatwright. The "Calendar sisters" take in the fugitives, providing them with employment and a safe place to stay. While June Boatwright is suspicious of Lily’s clumsy explanations of looking for an non-existent aunt in Richmond, August is patient, realizing Lily will eventually open up to them. In the meanwhile the sisters teach Lily the legend of the Black Madonna, and secrets of life for both bees and humans. Surrounded by strong and determined women, Lily learns "the hardest thing on earth is choosing what matters."

Kidd’s previous works (The Dance of the Dissident Daughter, When the Heart Waits) have been non-fiction, this is her first novel, published by Viking Press. The Secret Life of Bees‘ description of small town life and southern eccentrics are charming and have been compared to Harper Lee’s "To Kill a Mockingbird" and Bailey White’s "Quite a Year For Plums". It is also instructional, passing on a bit of information on the social life of bees. The characters of May and June Boatwright illustrate the dark sides of empathy and caution, respectively. August Boatwright is an admirable figure, a compassionate woman with a mind for business. The conflicts are resolved a little too neatly, and the confusion surrounding Lily’s mother’s death is never cleared up.

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