Hour of the Bees

Published in 2016, Hour of the Bees is a young adult magical realism novel by Lindsay Eagar. Set in contemporary New Mexico, the story follows 12-year-old Carol as she spends the summer on her grandfather’s sheep ranch, helping her family prepare it for sale and helping care for her grandfather, who has dementia. However, her grandfather’s stories of the land’s magic and history cause her to fall in love with it. Hour of the Bees is Eagar’s debut novel. Also, a classically trained pianist, Eagar resides in Utah with her husband and daughters.

This guide refers to the 2016 Candlewick Press e-book edition of the book.

Plot Summary

A bee buzzes around 12-year-old Carol’s head; she idly shoos it away. As she and her family (her father, Raúl; her mother, Patricia; and her baby brother, Luis) make the long drive to the New Mexico desert, she has bigger worries on her mind. They’ll stay at her grandfather Serge’s sheep farm over the summer. Serge has dementia and can no longer safely live there alone. They’ll be fixing up the property to prepare it for sale. Come autumn, they’ll move Serge to a nursing home.

Although the family has rehearsed all the ways they can make the transition as easy as possible for Serge, the tension between Raúl and his father is evident almost from the moment they arrive. Things only get worse when 17-year-old Alta (Carol’s half-sister) arrives in a new car that her father purchased for her. She and Patricia argue about the car while Carol watches over Luis and Serge.

Serge often calls her Rosa, the name of his late wife. When he does remember her name, he calls her Carolina, drawing out the syllables: “Caro-leeen-a.” Peppering his conversation with Spanish, he asks Carol why she spits on her roots, referring to the fact that she anglicizes her name from the Hispanic “Carolina” to “Carol.” In truth, she doesn’t know why except that all her Mexican American friends do the same. They shorten their names, speak only English, and try to become American rather than Mexican.

Serge tells her a tale: “Once upon a time, there was a tree,” he begins (84). This sacred tree blessed an ancient village. No one in the village was ever sick or injured, and no one ever grew old. The tree gave them everlasting life. In the village lived two children, Sergio and Rosa. They loved each other at first sight, but while Sergio was content to live in the village forever, Rosa burned with longing to see the world.

In Carol’s family, tension is high as weeks pass on the ranch. Raúl and Patricia bicker, and he and Serge fight. Alta sulks and shirks work. Serge slips in and out of dementia. He speaks of a 100-year-old drought and how the bees will bring back the rain someday. Everyone knows that bees can’t survive in the dry, forsaken desert, but Carol can’t explain why she keeps seeing them buzzing in the corner of her eye when she’s alone. Serge remembers how bees used to follow Rosa, too.

Serge resumes his story: Sergio and Rosa grew up and married. As a present for his bride, he promised her a honeymoon traveling the world, but time passed and Sergio continued to give her excuses as to why they couldn’t leave yet. Eventually, Rosa decided that if Serge wouldn’t come along, she would travel on her own. Desperate to protect his bride, he peeled a strip of bark from the sacred tree and made her a bracelet.

It was years before Rosa returned to the village, but when she did, she brought tales of her many adventures, including how she repeatedly escaped death, thanks to the bark bracelet made from the magical tree. The other villagers grow hungry to explore the world as well, so each takes from the tree to make protective amulets, necklaces, and even boats. For years, they return, take from the tree, and leave again. Only Sergio remains. Rosa stays with him for a time, while she bears their son, Raúl. Soon, she’s gone again. Eventually, nothing remains of the tree but a dead stump. The land becomes arid.

In her grandmother Rosa’s old closet, Carol finds a strange seed. Compulsively, she plants it next to the stump of an old tree on the day they’re to leave the ranch; amazingly, bees carrying droplets of water land on the seed before Carol buries it. She realizes that she has fallen in love with it and her grandfather. She also begins to believe that Serge’s incredible and fantastical story is factual. She begs her father not to sell and to let Serge stay there, but Raúl assures her that the changes are necessary. On the long drive back to Albuquerque, Serge continues his story: When the tree was reduced to a mere stump, its blessing wore off, and the villagers began to die. Raúl, tired of fighting with his father, had left for good, while Rosa finally returned home for good, sick with cancer, and stayed there with Sergio until her death.

Back at school with her friends, Carol can’t shake the influence of the ranch and her grandfather’s stories. One day, it begins to rain in Albuquerque, and she learns that it’s also raining where the ranch is, but no one shares her joy that the 100-year drought is over. Carol knows she must share the moment with Serge, so she steals Alta’s car and sneaks her grandfather out of the nursing home. They make the long drive back to the ranch.

Carol and Serge arrive at the ranch to find that a new tree has grown and the land has been renewed by a lake. Eventually, the rest of the family arrives, having guessed at the runaways’ destination. None of them can believe the ranch’s transformation, yet it’s right before their eyes. Serge soon dies, having made peace with his death and his family. Raúl decides not to sell the ranch and, instead, moves the family there to live. Carolina, now using her full name out of pride for her roots, suggests that they convert the ranch from a sheep farm to a bee farm.