Product Description

Elizabeth Graver's first novel, Unravelling, was hailed on publication as "exceptional" (The New York Times Book Review), "a pleasure" (The New Yorker), and "exquisitely poignant and sensual" (The Boston Globe). Now, in her second novel, she proves herself to be a major voice in American fiction. The summer that eleven-year-old Eva is caught shoplifting (for the fourth time), her mother, Miriam, decides the only solution is to move out of the city to a quiet town in upstate New York. There, she hopes, they can have the normal life she longs for. But Miriam is bound by a past she is trying to forget, and tensions escalate. It is only when Eva meets a reclusive beekeeper that she-and her mother-can find their way back to each other, and can begin life with renewed promise. A haunting novel of memory and desire, The Honey Thief reveals the healing power of friendship and the ineradicable bonds of mother and child.

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Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #57359 in Books
• Published on: 2000-09-28
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 272 pages

Features

• ISBN13: 9780156013901
• Condition: NEW
• Notes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark.
• Click here to view our Condition Guide and Shipping Prices

Amazon.com Review
"The first time a store manager called about Eva, Miriam had thought it was a mistake." Eva Baruch, 11 years old, has been caught stealing three times. The fourth time, her widowed mother takes drastic action and moves them from their East Village apartment to a small town in Upstate New York. Miriam explains that their new home will allow them a "normal" life; at the root of her decision, however, is a nagging fear that Eva's kleptomania is just the beginning of a bigger problem, "the snag in the stocking that leads to the run, the computer virus (it had happened in the law firm where she worked) that becomes visible too late." The transition is not easy for either of them: Miriam works long hours to support herself and her daughter, while Eva must weather the twin storms of loneliness and impending adolescence. Then Eva meets Burl, a former lawyer who has withdrawn into the isolation of his grandparents' farm to raise bees.

For a while he had sat around cooking up grand plans--a cooperative farm, sustainable agriculture, or a commercial beekeeping operation, maybe even migratory hives that he'd load into a semitruck and drive across the country, following the bloom. Or an ostrich farm. He liked how odd they looked, somewhere between bird and beast, and they were supposed to be the new, low-fat red meat. Sometimes when he let his thoughts wander far enough, he'd had a farming and business partner who was also a mate.

Unfortunately, the woman of his choice has married someone else, he's let the farm go to seed, and now he makes a living writing how-to books and tending his hives as a hobby only. When young Eva comes into his life and begins helping with the bees, however, he is drawn reluctantly into her life and that of her mother.

Elizabeth Graver throws these three isolated people together and then wisely steps out of the way to let them work on each other. As the story moves forward, she allows her characters to look back, gradually weaving in memories that explain Burl's choices and Miriam's fears. Best of all, she avoids the obvious resolutions; instead, The Honey Thief plays out much as life does--messy, painful at times, with no guarantees but plenty of reason to hope. --Alix Wilber

From Publishers Weekly
A mother and daughter trying to overcome trauma, loneliness and an uncertain future are not a new combination in literary fiction. But in her wise and accomplished novel, Graver navigates the crossroads in her characters' lives with compassion and skill, and tells a story that touches the heart without succumbing to sentimentality or easy answers. After 11-year-old Eva Baruch is caught shoplifting for the third time, her desperate widowed mother, Miriam, decides they must move from their apartment in lower Manhattan to a place where they can start new lives. She finds a job as a paralegal in the Finger Lakes region of New York State, and they move to a farmhouse a distance from the nearest town. Miriam seems competent and self-contained, but she has been frightened since the first year of her marriage to Francis DiLeone, and the facts about her husband's fatal heart attack when Eva was six are revealed only gradually through flashbacks. Miriam is Jewish, while Francis was the son of a fanatically Catholic mother who talks to saints; the specter of inherited mental illness haunts Miriam even as she struggles to support herself and Eva and strives to keep her daughter safe and healthy. Meanwhile, a resentful Eva, suddenly transplanted to a place where she has no friends or resources, visits Burl, a shy, middle-aged loner who has quit his career as a Philadelphia lawyer to retreat to his grandparents' farm, where he raises bees. Burl's kindness and patience in teaching Eva the intricacies of bee-keeping and honey gathering help her to quell the panic attacks that presage her kleptomania, an irresistible impulse to acquire talismans against imagined disasters. When events come to crisis, Graver wisely refrains from resolving them in a neat or romantic closure. Her touch is both subtle and honest, grounded in reality but acknowledging the essence of human striving for companionship and happiness. Her ability to create nuanced, fallible characters who doggedly strive to go on with imperfect lives adds emotional resonance to this touching tale. Readers who enjoyed Amy and Isabelle will welcome the similar sensibility they find here. (Aug.)
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal
YA-Eva DiLeone, 11, has been arrested several times for shoplifting. Her mother Miriam moves them from Manhattan to a small community near Ithaca, NY, hoping for a better environment for her daughter. She has a secret that Eva knows nothing about: the girl's father, who supposedly died of a heart attack when she was six, actually committed suicide in the throes of mental illness. Miriam fears that Eva has inherited her father's imbalance. Meanwhile, it's summer, and the girl is lonely. Down the road lives a beekeeper, and Eva is drawn to the jars of honey he puts out for sale at the end of his driveway. She takes one and, a few days later, takes another. Burl, of course, knows perfectly well who has stolen his honey, but encourages Eva's interest in beekeeping and lets her help him. One day a package labeled "Live Queen Bees" arrives when Burl isn't home and Eva decides to put the new queen inside the hive. When she is badly stung and hospitalized, Miriam is furious with Burl and, confronting him, blurts out her fears. In doing so, she realizes that she must tell Eva the truth about her father and try to establish a more honest relationship with her. YAs will appreciate this realistic portrayal of a relationship between mother and daughter, and the rocky friendship of a lonely girl and a shy man with problems of his own.
Molly Connally, Kings Park Library, Fairfax County, VA
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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Customer Reviews

As sweet as honey!
The Honey Thief is a lucid and beautiful novel about how the errors of the past haunt the present and how a widowed wife and daughter deal with bottled up feelings. Do secrets affect relationships and every day life? After eleven-year-old Eva is picked up on her fourth shoplifting charge, her mother, Miriam, decides to move from Manhattan to a quiet town in New York State. Lonely, Eva bonds with a middle-aged beekeeper named Burl. But Eva hasn't felt compelled to tell her mother about her new friend. Also, Miriam has never told Eva about her father's death. She told her he died of a heart attack. But is that the truth? The disturbing and heart-wrenching way her father died could affect Eva's future. As tension mounts between mother and daughter, Miriam wonders if she should open up to her daughter. There are some haunting scenes in this book.

The Honey Thief has beautiful language; it has a rather lyrical feel to it. I have fallen in love with this book; there are few novels about family dilemmas that touch me this way. With compelling characters and exquisite language, The Honey Thief is as sweet and as rich as, well, honey. I highly recommend this title.

An enjoyable read
The book was well written, drawing the reader into the inner lives of its complex and endearing characters. The story captured the essence of how the forgotten losses of early childhood can create a lonliness and un-named longing as the years go by. Graver's portrayal of the mother/daughter relationship rings rich and true. The only 'fault' in the story, was that Graver seemed to 'sell us short' at the ending....I think she could have gone a bit further toward resolution of some of the issues. Mind you, I wouldn't like a neat and tidy ending, but this one was a bit too ambiguous. But graver's writing makes up for any shortcomings at the end. I enjoyed every page...just wish there were more of them!

A Hauntingly complex and moving novel
I found this novel completely engrossing and incredibly moving. The story of Eva and the effect her past has on her present seemed so real to me. The characters are all trying so hard to manage their lives but have all kinds of human frailties. And I loved all the details about bees and beekeeping, which add a whole other layer to the book. As someone in the mental health profession, I also thought the depiction of mental illness and its effect on families was both accurate and wrenching. All-told,this is one of the best novels I've read in the last few years.