Sue Monk Kidd's internationally bestselling first novel THE SECRET LIFE OF BEES has delighted many millions of readers around the world ' Charming funny moving' The Times; 'A wonderful book by turns sad full of incident & shot through with grown-up magic reminiscent of Joanne Harris' Daily Telegraph Lily has grown up believing she accidentally killed her mother when she was four She not only has her own memory of holding the gun but her father's account of the event Now fourteen she yearns for her mother & for forgiveness Living on a peach farm in South Carolina with her father she has only one friend Rosaleen a black servant whose sharp exterior hides a tender heart South Carolina in the sixties is a place where segregation is still considered a cause worth fighting for When racial tension explodes one summer afternoon & Rosaleen is arrested & beaten Lily is compelled to act Fugitives from justice & from Lily's harsh & unyielding father they follow a trail left by the woman who died ten years before Finding sanctuary in the home of three beekeeping sisters Lily starts a journey as much about her understanding of the world as about the mystery surrounding her mother