Of Bees and Mist

Meridia suffers through an emotionally impoverished childhood with noncommunicative parents. Narrator Marguerite Gavin's crisp tones convey Meridia's upper-class home, where what little tenderness she manages to garner comes only from her nanny. Varying her pace to characterize a wide range of characters, Gavin carefully portrays Meridia's impervious father, breathily distracted mother, and germaphobe nurse. Gavin accurately captures Meridia's confusion at the behavior of the adults who fail to fulfill her emotional needs and depicts her shyness and isolation, in particular, through the numerous rhetorical questions she wonders about but never actually asks. Gavin's performance amplifies the mysterious and ironic undertones of the story. M.R. (c) AudioFile 2009, Portland, Maine

June 1, 2009
Setiawan’s debut novel spans 30 years in this heartfelt magical-realist story of two rival families living in a mystical world that transcends both time and place. Meridia is a lonely child; a mysterious incident when she was an infant has torn apart her parents, leaving them sharing nothing but a cold, mist-filled home. Not until Meridia meets the charmer Daniel, at age 16, does she finally feel loved. They marry and move in with his family and at first Meridia loves her life in Daniel’s home. But she quickly learns of matriarch Eva’s deceitful, manipulative ways and her power, both natural and supernatural, which she uses to control her family. When Meridia rebels against Eva, finding unexpected support from her parents, the rivalry solidifies and a lifelong battle begins. As time passes, Meridia faces heartbreak and betrayal, becoming a strong, fiercely independent woman. While filled with fortune-tellers, ghosts and unexplained phenomena, the relationships between the various characters are true to life so that fans of fantasy and fiction lovers alike are sure to enjoy this magical tale.

August 3, 2009
Reality has been tipped askew in Setiawan supernatural story of mothers and daughters, husbands and wives. Me-ridia grows up in a home where the magic and hostility are so thick, mist wraps envelops the house and her bitter relationship with her in-laws becomes a battle against swarming bees that nettle the skin and heart. Marguerite Gavin's riveting performance brings light and clarity to Setiawan's provocative fantasy. Particularly creative and af-fecting are her renderings of the bees and Meridia's empathetic voice. Her characterizations are on target, and her tone is tone is as intense as the unfolding drama, and her characterizations are on target. A Simon & Schuster hardcover (Reviews, Jun.1).