And I toyed with the idea of having the parents go on holiday, just abandoning them. So I came up with this idea of two little girls, raising themselves and making their parents absent. I wanted a little girl who was on her own, by herself, neglected, alone. I looked at those lines for a really long time before I decided they were going to be a novel. And I thought of a girl who had lost her parents speaking. 'I actually thought about writing it as a screenplay to begin with. On how the novel grew out of that beginning paragraph They were never there for us, they were absent, at least now we know where they are.' They just never showed up for anything and it was always left to me and left to Nelly when she got old enough. They used to call me wee Maw around the towers, that's how useless Gene and Izzy were. 'I was changing nappies at five years old and shopping at seven, cleaning and doing laundry as soon as I knew my way to the launderette and pushing Nelly about in her wee buggy when I was six. Though really, Marnie says, she's always been the one taking care of Nelly: Their goal is to make it until Marnie turns 16 and is legally allowed to care for her younger sister. But instead of reporting it, they decide to keep it a secret. Those words, written by author Lisa O'Donnell, begin the story of Marnie and Nelly, two sisters who find their parents, Gene and Izzy, dead. Today I buried my parents in the backyard. And if you believe the first sentences of a novel are often the most difficult to write, try this beginning paragraph: The Death of Bees is a story about two young girls living in a Glasgow, Scotland, housing project. Your purchase helps support NPR programming. Written with fierce sympathy and beautiful precision, told in alternating voices, The Death of Bees is an enchanting, grimly comic tale of three lost souls who, unable to answer for themselves, can answer only for one another.Close overlay Buy Featured Book Title The Death of Bees Author Lisa O'Donnell As one lie leads to another, dark secrets about the girls' family surface, creating complications that threaten to tear them apart. But soon, the sisters' friends, their teachers, and the authorities start asking tougher questions. Lennie takes them in - feeds them, clothes them, protects them - and something like a family forms. While life in Glasgow's Maryhill housing estate isn't grand, the girls do have each other.Īs the New Year comes and goes, Lennie, the old man next door, realizes that his young neighbors are alone and need his help.

Only they know what happened to their parents, Izzy and Gene, and they aren't telling. Marnie and her little sister, Nelly, are on their own now.

The Death of Bees by Lisa O'Donnell