Another haunting novel of eco-speculation from Johanna Sinisalo, the award-winning author of Troll and a powerhouse of the Finnish science fiction and fantasy scene

It is claimed Albert Einstein said that if bees disappear from the earth, mankind has four years left. When bee-vanishings of unprecedented scale hit the United States, Orvo, a Finnish beekeeper, knows all too well where it will lead. And when he sees the queen dead in his hives one day, it's clear the epidemic has spread to Europe, and the world is coming to an end. Orvo's special knowledge of bees just may enable him to glimpse a solution to catastrophe: he takes a desperate step onto a path where only he and the bees know the way but it propels him into conflict with his estranged, but much-loved son, a committed animal activist. A magical plunge into the myth of death and immortality, this is a tale of human blindness in the face of devastation—and the inevitable.

Johanna Sinisalo is a Finnish science fiction and fantasy writer who won the James Tiptree Jr. Award, as well as the most acclaimed Finnish literary prize, the Finlandia, for her novel Troll. Her novel Birdbrain was one of Publishers Weekly's Top 10: Science Fiction & Fantasy titles and Locus's Top 10 Fantasy Novels in 2011. She also edited The Dedalus Book of Finnish Fantasy and was nominated for a Nebula Award for her short story "Baby Doll."