As an avid reader, I will generally finish a book, and start the next one a minute later. As I wrapped up this, I didn't feel like I could do that. I had to stop. I'd listened to the audiobook, but I had the kindle copy too (both are included in KindleUnlimited) and felt like I needed to look at the text, skim through things again to re-read some parts (I pretty much found myself starting at the beginning and reading it all ... right after I finished listening to it!) I got very involved in this story, and it hit me emotionally several times. There were many times while I was listening, that I wished I was reading the kindle copy, so that I could stop and highlight and insert some notes. But I really liked the audio version too, so I'm glad I experienced it that way first. The accents added to the ambience.

Admittedly, this was a little confusing. The "time" is constantly shifting. It starts out talking about how this little "bee-baby" was found by Nana Reja. Then it pops back to when Nana Reja was a young woman after she had given birth to her own baby, then it quickly moves forward several years, then jumps 20+ years, then 20+ years again. All throughout the book, there are major time-shifts (one chapter starts with "I was born" and a little later in the same chapter says "But I'm old" and the chapters were spotlighting different times, non-linear ... it was a little hard to keep track.

In addition to the time shifts, there were "narrator" shifts ... this was pretty obvious in the audio version. A female narrator and a male narrator. Nothing was noted in the text (as many books do, announcing who is telling the story as it switches between chapters), but there was a general, omniscient (3rd person) narrator (the female narrator in audio) and then first person ... it's Francisco Jr, but that isn't really obvious for a while! In audio, it's the male narrator. As chapter 2 starts, there is the switch to first person, without really telling us (the reader) WHO is speaking! There's a clue (my grandfather and his twenty-two siblings ... in the first chapter it was mentioned that the original Sr. Morales had remarried and "together they have Reja twenty-two more little ones to feed" ... so it's possible to backtrack and assume that this is a grandchild of Guillermo Morales, but if I hadn't been listening to audio, I don't know if I would have known if it was a man or woman until a little further in the chapter until there is a memory "shush boy, you're like a cicada" ...)

The story would switch between the 3rd person narration, and the first person narration ... it wasn't a completely even switch. Sometimes there would be several chapters from one perspective, then a few from the other. It's interesting how many were the first person early on, seeing as how Francisco Jr hadn't even been born until later in the story (but then again, as it didn't stick to chronological order, that wasn't quite as important). Then, closer to the end, there was a further switch-up ... second person? I haven't located the parts in the kindle version, so just going off my memory from my single listen (found it, chapter 61 & chapter 67), it seemed like the omniscient narrator was talking TO Francisco (our other narrator), and then Francisco talking to US, the reader ... but then again, I guess that was really to Nico, the taxi-driver (chapter 65), who is apparently who he is telling this story to. Then back to the 3rd person narration, but talking about Francisco (previously, when it was really about Francisco, it was Francisco telling the story).

There were 100 chapters ... but some of the chapters (especially nearer the end) were super short. I liked that the chapter headings were very illustrative ... just reading over them can bring back memories of the book! I also liked this "bookclub" type review/thoughts/questions ... https://www.marmaladeandmustardseed.com/bookguidesblog/the-murmur-of-bees

I've listed this (in my shelves) as historical/realistic ... there was the touch of paranormal, with Simonopio's bees and his ability to sense/see things (which was never really explained).

With all the jumbled jumping around, in time, with narrators/perspectives, touching on so many different topics (spanish flu, Lazarus, the war, Singer sewing machines, oranges, etc), not really giving all the answers (the bees, what happened to Nana Reja?), that this was a translation ... honestly, I'm surprised I liked this as much as I did. But I did. There were moments I was close to tears, but there were also moments when I almost laughed out loud (not super hilarious things, but small statements made by the characters that were funny). It's one I'll remember ... and I'm considering purchasing to keep on hand.