Beloved in Japan, Riku Onda immerses us in the world of music—from piano masterpieces to the buzz of bees and the rumble of thunder—which crescendos to a surprising ending in this rich and vibrant novel. In a place she had determined to forget forever, both anticipated encounters and unanticipated revelations show her, and us, that sometimes life is neither fate nor chance: perhaps it’s nothing more than a little luck. The novel starts off with a murder, and with seven people trapped on an isolated Greek island lashed by a "wild, unpredictable Greek wind. I would categorize this a philosophy book, really -- an exploration of art and music from a variety of perspectives.

It felt like I was actually there in the concert hall, listening to the nimble and vibrant notes of Prokofiev’s Piano Concerto and immersing myself in the soft and gentle melody of Chopin’s Ballade. This book reads like a screenplay adaptation of a shonen manga, with its manga characters, manga narrative, manga flashbacks and manga reactions.I've had the advance copy for a while, I'll admit, and never felt hugely drawn to read it despite my initial interest. What particularly struck me in this novel was the insistence on the universality of music, its ability to not only transcend language and culture, but even humanity itself. Akashi balances music with work and fatherhood, while precocious Jin is a disruptor in this rarefied world.

This is a character driven novel all about their growth as artists and finding a sense of comradeship in each other, as being a genius is a lonely thing when you’re by yourself. Aya is a piano genius, well, she was, until she ran away from the stage and vanished; will Makun, tall and talented in every way, bring her back? Mais que isso, senti que ouvia as músicas que eles tocavam, pela sua escrita tão musical e por descrever as emoções que a plateia sentia ao ouvi-los. For an avid reader, it's pretty amazing to be able to say "I've never read a book like this before" but that is exactly how I feel about this novel. Whether they need to focus on hard work and ambition or give into the emotion, creativity, or fun of music.

Hotjar sets this cookie to know whether a user is included in the data sampling defined by the site's daily session limit. Not even the added value of getting a glimpse into the world of professional musicians and the backstage of a music competition, and scattered philosophical thoughts on music and life could make me forgive the author for putting me through this. Aya was a piano genius, until she ran away from the stage and vanished; will the tall and talented Makun bring her back? Honeybees' is a lovely book to get lost in because it forces you to be in the moment with the story.

There’s disgraced child prodigy Aya, mysterious son of a beekeeper Jin, the ‘Prince of Julliard’ Masaru, and the seemingly ordinary Akashi. Hotjar sets this cookie to know whether a user is included in the data sampling defined by the site's pageview limit.NICK BRADLEY, author of THE CAT AND THE CITY * Propulsive and poetic * KIRKUS REVIEWS * Deeply moving. Es curioso como algo tan abstracto puede ir creando un hilo conductor de una novela y darle coherencia. I was in the new section of my library picking up books since I’ve been getting through books really quickly in the summer of 2023. Este livro acompanha uma competição internacional de piano altamente conceituada que decorre ao longo de 2 semanas no Japão e foca-se, principalmente, em 4 concorrentes: Aya, um génio da sua área que interrompeu abruptamente a sua carreira após o falecimento da mãe, Jin Kazama, o irreverente jovem pupilo dum grande mestre de piano cobiçado por todos, de origens modestas e que nunca teve sequer um piano seu, Akashi, um homem casado e com um filho bebé que há muito deixou de ter a música como foco e que, aos 28 anos, é o participante mais velho da competição e, por fim, Masaru, outro génio da sua área que apenas começou a tocar piano graças a uma amiga de infância que reconheceu nele um talento igual ao seu e o apresentou ao seu professor. Honeybees and Distant Thunder was the most celebrated novel of the year when it first published in Japan, winning two major literary awards: the Japan Booksellers Prize and the Naoki Prize (no other novel has won both in the same year).