书名：The Secret Life of Bees 蜜蜂的秘密生活
难度：Lexile蓝思阅读指数840L
作者：Sue Monk Kidd
出版社名称：Penguin
出版时间：2003
语种：英文
ISBN：9780142001745
商品尺寸：13 x 1.6 x 19.7 cm
包装：平装
页数：336
★一本母亲让你读后，你会想留给自己女儿的书！
★被英美大中学课堂作为教材广泛使用；中小学课外推荐阅读书目！
★我对母亲的记忆，是她的忌日。她是我的整个世界。我却夺去了她的生命。
★雄踞《纽约时报》畅销书榜单两年，世界销量450万册！

我们有过淅沥小雨、滂沱大雨和偶尔的季风天气，但是当我回想这些岁月，记忆里深刻的还是那个坚定不移的字：“爱”。

无论在人的世界还是在养蜂场，同样的规则行之有效：不要害怕，热爱生活的蜜蜂并不想蜇你；但也别犯傻，长袖和长裤一定要穿。

媒体评论：
《蜜蜂的秘密生活》证明，人们可以在意想不到的地方找到亲人——也许不是在你自己的屋檐下，但是，会在你找到爱的神奇之殿里。《蜜蜂的秘密生活》是一件礼物，充满希望的礼物。——《纽约时报书评》

一个震撼人心的故事……基德的文笔犀利，描述生动。前面一章还没有读完，我就服了，亦悲亦喜，不禁动容。我知道我注定要与莉莉同行，还有她那位可爱的保姆罗萨琳和非凡的月历三姐妹……让我们期望着基德讲述更多的故事。——国家（哥伦比亚，南卡罗来纳）

美玉一样的小说。基德塑造了一个美妙的世外桃源。在这里，蜜蜂是一种象征，预示着自我的回归、疼痛和快乐的分享。这个故事让人久久回味，值得一再重温。
——《弗吉尼亚季评》

你或许很想撕掉中间那么几十页，好早点知道结局。不过，稍稍克制一下自己。这不是一本光靠情节吸引人的小说。阅读的过程甚至更加怡人。在你的心灵需要甜蜜的安慰和理疗时，拿起它吧。——《南方生活》

《蜜蜂的秘密生活》讲述了人的内心世界，这个世界在每个人的体内都或多或少地存在。了解它，才能驾轻就熟地认识自身，融入周围的人群。主人公莉莉引领我们从一个奇特而颠覆性的角度去观看了一场人生变故，值得细细品味。——《新闻与报道》，纽约

一个从小缺乏爱，完全将自己否定的女孩如何能帮助自己和另一个人站起来，找到更美好的生活？读完这本小说，你会信心大增。如果这样一个女孩能做到，那么，你也能！
——《洛杉矶时报书评》

惊讶于基德怎能如此细致地描写人物的心理。遭受不公的少女内心充满仇恨，覆上一层厚厚的茧，然后，茧慢慢被软化，苦涩被蜂蜜取代……这个过程令人惊叹。
——《文学评论》，英国

女孩承受的冲突和负担令人心痛。母亲想要弃她而去，父亲从来不给好脸色，大家都知道她曾经是个凶手……看基德如何在一团乱麻中智慧地找到通往救赎的路。——《娱乐周刊》

一部性平如蜜的南方小说，一段寻求真理的心路历程……基德的小说中有悬念，有暴戾，有彷徨，有秘密。但凌驾于这些之上的，是对生活的通透晓悟。——《书页》

我在一个异常阴暗的日子打开了《蜜蜂的秘密生活》。那段时光充满极度的抑郁、无尽的痛苦、深沉的焦虑和绝望，报纸头条尽是战争和恐怖袭击……一个黯淡的黎明，我撕破了书脊。读完这本书的那天，我记得，是个晴朗的好天气。……世上没有十全十美的书，这也许是事实，但是，当我读完这本小说时，却认为我找到了至臻完美。——《图书》

The multi-million bestselling novel about a young girl's journey towards healing and the transforming power of love, from the award-winning author of The Invention of Wings
Set in South Carolina in 1964, The Secret Life of Bees tells the story of Lily Owens, whose life has been shaped around the blurred memory of the afternoon her mother was killed. When Lily's fierce-hearted black "stand-in mother," Rosaleen, insults three of the deepest racists in town, Lily decides to spring them both free. They escape to Tiburon, South Carolina--a town that holds the secret to her mother's past. Taken in by an eccentric trio of black beekeeping sister, Lily is introduced to their mesmerizing world of bees and honey, and the Black Madonna. This is a remarkable novel about divine female power, a story that women will share and pass on to their daughters for years to come.

Review
"A moving first novel...Lily is an authentic and winning character and her story is compellingly told. The bees presage her journey toward self-acceptance, faith and freedom that is at the heart of this novel." --USA Today

"Inspiring. Sue Monk Kidd is a direct literary descendant of Carson McCullers."
--The Baltimore Sun

"Fully imagined...the core of this story is Lily's search for a mother, and she finds one in a place she never expected." --The New York Times Book Review

"This is the story of a young girl's journey toward healing, and of the intrinsic sacredness of living in the world. Simply wonderful." --Anne Rivers Siddons

""The stunning metaphors and realistic characters are so poignant they will bring tears to your eyes." --Library Journal

"Kidd has written a triumphant coming-of-age novel that speaks to the universal need for love" --New Orleans Times-Picayune

"The chapters...dance on the edges of 'Magical Realism, ' that blend of the fabulous and the ordinary that can invest a tale with a sense of wonderment, as is the case here."
--Richmond Times-Dispatch

"I am amazed that this moving, original, and accomplished book is a first novel. It is wonderfully written, powerful, poignant, and humorous, and deliciously eccentric. Do read it."
--Joanna Trollope

"A wonderful novel about mothers and daughters and the transcendent power of love."
--Connie May Fowler

"A truly original Southern voice." --Anita Shreve

"It's as if Kidd loaded up a take-home plate with treats, and you said 'Oh, I couldn't, ' and then scarfed it down in the car on the way home." --Entertainment Weekly

"The tale of one motherless daughter's discovery of what family really means--and of the strange and wondrous places we love." --The Washington Post
20世纪60年代的美国南方，美国黑人民权运动风起云涌。一个四岁的白人女孩，在与父母的争执中不小心拣起地上的枪，突然枪走火，把自己的妈妈打死了。她的父亲粗暴简单，小女孩心灵背负重压。几年后，她踏上了流浪之路，一个由三个黑人同胞姐妹组成的黑人家庭收容了她。在这个家庭中，小女孩心中的阴暗情结得到了救赎，得到了疗伤，生命重新被点亮，找到了自我，学会了宽容，学会了坚强，学会了爱。故事让人感动，久久回味。

用丑陋和艰难，照亮生命中的美。在南卡罗来纳，一个怀揣着无尽秘密与烦恼的女孩躺在床上，思母心切。神秘和蜂群从她闺房的墙缝中涌出，满屋子轻盈翻飞。一张黑圣母的画像，一个瞬间闪现的声音：“你的蜜蜂瓶盖子打开了”，让她依稀看到前方的路。在一个蜜与蜂的避难所思里，她被救赎、疗伤，与迷失的自己再次相遇。
苏·蒙克·基德（Sue Monk kidd），集经典与畅销于一身的美国著名女作家，少女时代深受梭罗的影响。她的文字隽永优美，能触及人心深处柔软的部分。从自然的灵性中寻找回归的自我，发掘灵魂的美丽，是常常萦绕在她字里行间的主题。《蜜蜂的秘密生活》是她的成名作。

Sue Monk Kidd's first novel, The Secret Life of Bees, spent more than one hundred weeks on the New York Times bestseller list, has sold more than six million copies in the United States, and was turned into an award-winning major motion picture, and has been translated into thirty-six languages. Her second novel, The Mermaid Chair, was a number-one New York Times bestseller and adapted into a television movie. Her third novel, The Invention of Wings, was a number-one New York Times bestseller and a selection of Oprah's Book Club 2.0. She is also the author of several acclaimed memoirs, including the New York Times bestseller Traveling with Pomegranates, written with her daughter, Ann Kidd Taylor. She lives in Florida.
July 1, 1964, I lay in bed, waiting for the bees to show up, thinking of what Rosaleen had said when I told her about their nightly visitations.

"Bees swarm before death," she'd said.

Rosaleen had worked for us since my mother died. My daddy - who I called T. Ray because "Daddy" never fit him - had pulled her out of the peach orchard, where she'd worked as one of his pickers. She had a big round face and a body that sloped out from her neck like a pup tent, and she was so black that night seemed to seep from her skin. She lived alone in a little house tucked back in the woods, not far from us, and came every day to cook, clean, and be my stand-in mother. Rosaleen had never had a child herself, so for the last ten years I'd been her pet guinea pig.

Bees swarm before death. She was full of crazy ideas that I ignored, but I lay there thinking about his one, wondering if the bees had come with my death in mind. Honestly, I wasn't that disturbed by the idea. Every one of those bees could have descended on me like a flock of angels and stung me till I died, and it wouldn't have been the worst thing to happen. People who think dying is the worst thing don't know a thing about life.

My mother died when I was four years old. It was a fact of life, but if I brought it up, people would suddenly get interested in their hangnails and cuticles, or else distant places in the sky, and seem not to hear me. Once in a while, though, some caring soul would say, "Just put it out of your head, Lily. It was an accident. You didn't mean to do it."

That night I lay in bed and thought about dying and going to be with my mother in paradise. I would meet her saying, "Mother, forgive. Please forgive," and she would kiss my skin till it grew chapped and tell me I was not to blame. She would tell me this for the first ten thousand years.

The next ten thousand years she would fix my hair. She would brush it into such a tower of beauty, people all over heaven would drop their harps just to admire it. You can tell which girls lack mothers by the look of their hair. My hair was constantly going off in eleven wrong directions, and T. Ray, naturally, refused to buy me bristle rollers, so all year I'd have to roll it on Welch's grape juice cans, which had nearly turned me into an insomniac. I was always having to choose between decent hair and a good night's sleep.