McKay's Bees — Thomas McMahon

“An impressively original novel. . . . comic in its vision [yet] serious, constantly surprising in its twists of plot and its reflections upon life.” -- Wall Street Journal

Moving from Massachusetts to Kansas in 1855 with his new wife and a group of German carpenters, Gordon McKay is dead set on making his fortune raising bees -- undaunted by Missouri border ruffians, newly-minted Darwinism, or the unsettled politics of a country on the brink of civil war.
 
“Humorous and generous yet sometimes disconcertingly fatalistic, McMahon's storytelling is based on an irresistible curiosity about how the world works..” -- Alida Becker, New York Times Book Review

“Truly a gem -- an elegantly simple construct full of light and surprise.” -- Jean Strouse, Newsweek

“A literary miracle--a tale defying gravity and all manner of other rules that ground the narratives of most storytellers.” -- Douglas Bauer,  Boston Globe  

“McMahon, in such a short novel, should not have been able to bring coherence out of Darwin and Lincoln, bees and machines, East and West, honey and blood. . . . That he manages -- that wit, irony, gentleness, passion, and knowledge conspire so successfully -- is a wonder of craft.” -- John Leonard, New York Times

“[McMahon's novels] combine sophisticated scientific lore with a well-developed sense of human-ness. They are learned, funny, spiritual, and sexy. It would not be disgraceful to compare them with the work of Gabriel Garcia Marquez. Indeed, McMahon is a kind of Yankee magic realist, mixing the fantastic with the ordinary so seamlessly.” -- Toronto Globe & Mail