Paul Murray’s The Bee Sting

Paul Murray’s The Bee Sting, which was shortlisted for the Booker Prize this year, is the best book I’ve read in years. I can’t remember the last time I binge read anything. I think I had even forgotten that there was such a thing as staying up late guzzling down a whole novel — and this one is at 600-plus pages — several nights in a row. I did not stream whatever show everybody was watching; I did not reach out for Instagram. I read — at first, relating hard; then, disappearing into the characters’ secret lives; all…