The Beekeeper's Daughter Paperback – September 1, 2019

by Jessica Stilling (Author)

4.4 8 ratings

Lorelei Bauer is a modern-day woman with a penchant for Sylvia Plath, the icon who struggled with the injustices against women in the fifties, her role and status as a poet, her job as a mother, and her mental illness. Lorelei’s own mother suffered from mental illness and when Lorelei learns of her mother’s breakdown and illegal abortion, she goes on a quest to better understand her as a parent. Lorelei soon discovers her life is paralleling Plath’s, and she panics about her fate. During her quest, she meets up with an old friend of her mother's, Joanne, who gives her a secret, unpublished manuscript that her college friend, Sylvia Plath, sent her before her death. It is a continuation of the story of Esther Greenwood, Plath's protagonist from The Bell Jar. Lorelei learns many secrets from the Plath manuscript which both hurt her and makes her hopeful for her own future.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Jessica Stilling is the recipient of the Bronx Council on the Arts Chapter One Award and the author of the critically acclaimed novel Betwixt and Between. She has studied writing and literature at The New School and holds an MFA from City College. Her short fiction and poetry have appeared in more than forty literary journals including Wasifiri, The Warwick Review, and Caustic Frolic. Her feminist nonfiction has appeared in various media outlets such as Tor.com and the Ms. Magazine Blog. She has taught writing and literature in New York City for many years. She lives in New York with her family.

Product details

Publisher ‏ : ‎ Bedazzled Ink Publishing; None edition (September 1, 2019)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Paperback ‏ : ‎ 300 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 1949290190
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1949290196
Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 15.7 ounces
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 6 x 0.7 x 9 inches

Customer Reviews:
4.4 8 ratings

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4.4 out of 5

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Terminus Books

Wonderful!

Reviewed in the United States on March 22, 2021

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A beautifully written and inventive story. Highly recommended!

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Svetlana Bochman

Literary historical fiction with a mysterious modern twist.

Reviewed in the United States on November 9, 2021

I really loved this book because I love Sylvia Plath and this book makes her come alive. It imagines her struggles, not just as a brilliant author suffering from mental anguish towards the end of her life, but as a single mother of two small children living in straitened circumstances. This book does a great job giving the famous poet an authentic voice, both in describing Plath in 1950s England, and through excerpts from a lost literary manuscript, which is found in modern times by Lorelei, a young woman who gets caught up in a mystery. The stories of the famous poet, the manuscript and the modern-day Lorelei are tied together in such a creative and unexpected way. I won’t give away anything, but anyone who likes literary fiction and a good story will like this book.