Book World Tour: Tunisia
- Michael T. Stack
- May 28, 2022
- 1 min read
Going to a different continent: Africa. The Ardent Swarm is Yamen Manai's first novel to be translated into English and ended up being a big hit. This novel is WONDERFUL. It's a short book, coming in at less than 200 pages, but it doesn't seem it. It's a fully realized story with wonderful characters and a fascinating allegory.
There is much about the country of Tunisia that I have no idea about (including the location until I looked it up -- North Africa, bordering Algeria. The main plot, about a man who loses his precious beehive to a mysterious killer, deals with something we were shortly worried about here in the USA: Asian Giant Hornets.
AKA Murder Hornets, these TERRIFYING hornets are, well, terrifying. In Japan (the origin of the swarm in this novel), the bees have a brilliant defense: The ardent swarm. They swarm around the hornets, and make a ball of bees (so to say), and COOK the hornets, with temperatures reaching over 100 degrees Fahrenheit. The bees can withstand this heat, but the hornets cannot.
The story delves into the political and social unrest in Tunisia and makes for a fascinating story. I don't know much about Tunisia or its politics, so it was interesting to learn a bit. I highly recommend this book if you want an interesting story combined with a political allegory many may relate to no matter the country.
Next stop: Australia! Probably.
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