Eileen Garvin w/ Moira Macdonald

Bestselling author of The Music of Bees and Crow Talk, Eileen Garvin, visits the store for her latest novel, Bumblebee Season, a heartwarming new story that returns to the vibrant world of beekeeping in a small Oregon town. She is joined by Moira Macdonald, author of Storybook Ending.

Beekeeper Jake Stevenson should be celebrating. His fledgling honey farm has been inundated with orders. Instead, Jake is worried. He can’t seem to hire anyone—with local teens more interested in jobs at Hood River’s hip waterfront—and there’s no way he can handle the approaching harvest all by himself, no matter how adept he’s become at maneuvering among the beehives in his wheelchair.

Meanwhile Flaco López, a young migrant from Mexico, is lost on Mount Hood when he stumbles upon Jake’s beehives in a high alpine meadow. As Flaco takes refuge on Jake’s farm, they begin to form a tentative friendship. And the two soon cross paths with Abigail Plue, a scientist more interested in insects than people, who’s on Mount Hood studying a threatened native bumblebee.

Then a local rabble rouser begins to rally support to build a commercial hunting camp that would destroy Mount Hood’s pristine wilderness—the home of Jake’s honeybees and Abigail’s beloved bumblebees. And Jake, Abigail, and Flaco must come together to protect everything they hold dear. Full of warmth, big-hearted characters, and a celebration of nature in all its complexity, Bumblebee Season reminds us that human connection might just be the most powerful force there is.

Eileen Garvin is the author of the nationally bestselling novels Crow Talk and The Music of Bees, as well as the acclaimed memoir How to Be a Sister. Born and raised in Washington State, she lives in Oregon.

Moira Macdonald is the longtime arts critic for The Seattle Times. Her debut novel, Storybook Ending, has sold worldwide and is being translated into nineteen languages.

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