War torn Ukraine told through the eyes of a mild mannered bee keeper living in a no-man’s land called the Grey Zone. His bees are not yellow and black, they are gray.
Grey Bees – the blurb
Little Starhorodivka, a village of three streets, lies in Ukraine’s Grey Zone, the no-man’s-land between loyalist and separatist forces. Thanks to the lukewarm war of sporadic violence and constant propaganda that has been dragging on for years, only two residents remain: retired safety inspector turned beekeeper Sergey Sergeyich and Pashka, a “frenemy” from his schooldays.
With little food and no electricity, under ever-present threat of bombardment, Sergeyich’s one remaining pleasure is his bees. As spring approaches, he knows he must take them far from the Grey Zone so they can collect their pollen in peace. This simple mission on their behalf introduces him to combatants and civilians on both sides of the battle lines: loyalists, separatists, Russian occupiers and Crimean Tatars. Wherever he goes, Sergeyich’s childlike simplicity and strong moral compass disarm everyone he meets.
But could these qualities be manipulated to serve an unworthy cause, spelling disaster for him, his bees and his country?
Where are the bees?
You’d be forgiven for forgetting about bees all together in the fist half of the book. It’s winter in Sergey’s home town, the bees are hibernating and barely mentioned. This didn’t really bother me as I immediately took to Kurkov’s Little Starhorodivka and it’s two residents. Their lives were grim but I liked their love-hate relationship and settled in expecting A Man Called Ove vibe. I was wrong as Grey Bees is much more hard hitting and rightly so.
Summer holiday
What got me was the sudden decision Sergey made to move the bees. It came from no where and didn’t seem to fit with the previous 100 or so pages. The bees taking a holiday certainly changed the books direction and of course gave us more bee action! As I read on I began to realize that although Sergey himself was travelling, he didn’t seem to go on any actual mental journey. I barely made any emotional connection to him and found him a very cold kettle of fish.
“She’s a good woman, Sergeyich thought. Cooks well. And it isn’t fair that she has to live here alone. A pointless life, without a man…But she’s awfully plain. Even her name is plain – Galya. Life with her would probably be too plain for my taste.”
Whereas Sergey was sometimes unlikeable, the situations he found himself in appealed to me as a reader. The background to the War was delivered swiftly but effectively. The hardships Sergey and Pashka suffered with very little complaint expertly described. The checkpoints and the dangers that could be found in a place so elegantly described by Kurkov as a paradise ‘where nature not only serves people but dotes on them’ offered brilliant contrasts and kept me reading.
I enjoyed the book. It’s the first I have read about the Ukrainian/Russian conflict and I found it really informative whilst remaining entertaining. I just didn’t connect to the main character and as a result didn’t love it as much as I could have.