The Winter Bees - by Kimberly Brock (Hardcover)

About the Book

Book Synopsis

Two sisters. Three decades of silence. One grisly secret.

A story of estrangement, ancient rituals, and a reckoning three decades in the making.

For thirty years, Nance and Nuala Beaumont--the town's "Winter Bees"--have lived under one roof in silence. Nuala hasn't spoken since the day decades ago when young Simon disappeared on the day of his marriage to Nance, never to be heard from again. Still, every winter, the two sisters work together to light the fires in their special kiln and burn away the burdens that the community wishes to cast off. Any emotion that weighs a person down can be cast into the fire, and they can keep their memory without its pain or guilt.

But this year, as the winter solstice approaches, the past refuses to stay buried. A young man appears on their doorstep, and he's the spitting image of Simon himself--somehow unaged and hauntingly familiar, exactly like the young man whose affections they once fought over. Meanwhile, the things they've cast slowly but surely begin to creep their way back into the town, forcing the sisters and their town to finally reckon with a past they thought they'd left behind them.