Erick Setiawan: Of Bees And Mist

Thursday, August 27, 2009



I got contacted by Erick Setiawan, computer scientist-turned-author of the new book Of Bees and Mist - a literary fantasy about three generations of women in two families - which has been getting some great reviews (see here and here) and wanted to post up on the book:

Raised in a sepulchral house where ghosts dwell in mirrors, Meridia grows up lonely and miserable. But at age sixteen, she has a chance at happiness when she falls in love with Daniel—a caring and naïve young man. Soon, they marry and Meridia can finally escape to live with her husband’s family, unaware that they harbor dark secrets of their own. There is a grave hidden in the garden, there are two sisters groomed from birth to despise each other, and there is Eva—the formidable matriarch and the wickedest mother-in-law imaginable—whose grievances swarm the air in an army of bees. As Meridia struggles to keep her life and marriage together, she discovers long-buried secrets about her own past as well as shocking truths about her new family that inexorably push her love, courage, and sanity to the brink.

Erick Setiawan’s debut is an engrossing fable that chronicles three generations of women under one family tree over a period of thirty years—their galvanic love and passion, their shifting alliances, their superstitions and complex domestic politics—and places them in a mythical town where spirits and spells, witchcraft and demons, and prophets and clairvoyance are an everyday reality. An astonishing debut, Of Bees and Mist is a richly atmospheric and tumultuous ride of hope and heartbreak that is altogether touching, truthful, and entirely memorable.
You can pick up the book at Simon & Shuster, Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Borders, and more - check out the site and make sure to read Erick's bio - especially if you're a budding author yourself.