(published in “avrupa” newspaper)

What is a home? And where is it? For some, home is where one grew up, from where their blood runs, for others it is something they carry in their hearts, a place where they’re loved one resides. The concept of home in Smailes’ Like Bees to Honey is paramount to the novel’s protagonist, Nina, in laying her past to which belongs to Malta, to rest and learn how to move on. This is a tale of strength; what it means to have a family, how to be a daughter, a mother and a wife in the same breath.

Like Bees to Honey brings out Smailes’ true colours as a great painter of words. Images of Malta are burned into our minds with incredible mastery; decadent and dishevelled images of houses, dark atmospheric places of worship and crazy bus drivers. The reader is exposed to an incredible explosion of sensory experiences; from the clammy weather to the delicious smells and tastes of Malta.

This read is most definitely an intense experience as it deals with themes centred on the rejection of a child. The bond between a child and parent is one that is meant to have no bounds, one that can never be broken, but for Nina, it is severed completely. Nina returns to her family home in Malta, one that she had been banished from by her parents and the morals of life which at times only tear people apart. Within this intense and highly charged text, one can feel a great sense of anxiety penetrate the first later of flesh upon the heart. We feel a deep sickness and prang of pain as family obligations are crossed.

Poetry and rhythm are deeply rooted in Smailes’ style of writing. The physicality of her style upon the page guides the reader deeper into Nina’s world as she tries to rectify broken relationships and her own sense of loss and detachment from her island. Smailes at times acts as a magician as she conjures up surreal images of the afterlife, one where Jesus shares beer with you and bewilders the reader by his interesting choice in nail polish, these images and writing style are familiar to the one of the writer Nicola Barker.

Like Bees to Honey has more than an ephemeral impact upon the reader; it is a story that stays with you as you glide rapidly and seamlessly through it and one that may leave one with a dull ache as experienced with many emotionally charged and well written books. This is a story which you know you ought to let go, a story which one knows must end and be put aside, but that is the beauty of the book. It is one you can pick up once more, time after time.

Like Bees to Honey is to be published: 28th May at the price of £7.99

A little bit about the author; prior to writing Like Bees to Honey, Caroline Smailes’ has published other novels such as In Search of Adam (2007) and Black Boxes (2008). Caroline was born in Newcastle, studied English Literature in Liverpool and after an interesting event, found herself on an MA course in Creative Writing in Manchester; she won the Michael Schmidt prize for the best novel portfolio of the year. She also has a website http://www.carolinesmailes.co.uk/ which provides all the information that any fan may require.

©Zehra Mustafa