A Novel
by Riku Onda
Critics' Opinion:
Readers' rating:
Published May 2023
432 pages
Genre: Literary Fiction
Publication Information
Tender and intense, Honeybees and Distant Thunder is the unflinching story of love, courage and rivalry as three young people come to understand what it means to truly be a friend.
In a small coastal town just a stone's throw from Tokyo, a prestigious piano competition is underway. Over the course of two feverish weeks, three students will experience some of the most joyous—and painful—moments of their lives. Though they don't know it yet, each will profoundly and unpredictably change the others, for ever.
Aya was a child prodigy who abruptly gave up performing after the death of her mother, and is now trying for a comeback; Masaru, a childhood friend of Aya who came to the piano through her insistence that he learn to play, is now reunited with her after many years, and is equally invested in both his and her success; Akashi, who is older and married, works in a music store and is the "old man" of the competitors, hoping for a final chance at success; and Jin, a sixteen-year-old prodigy, the free spirited son of a beekeeper who travels constantly, and has no formal training (and doesn't even own a piano) yet whose mesmerizing insight into music has brought him to the attention of one of the world's most celebrated pianists, the late Maestro Von Hoffman.
Each of them will break the rules, awe their fans and push themselves to the brink. But at what cost?
Beloved in Japan, Riku Onda immerses us in the world of music—from piano masterpieces to the buzz of bees and the rumble of thunder—which crescendos to a surprising ending in this rich and vibrant novel.
"Driven young people face off at a prestigious Japanese piano competition in this propulsive and poetic novel. A thrilling depiction of the power of music." —Kirkus Reviews (starred review)
"A paean to the power of music, Honeybees and Distant Thunder is an inspired novel about how art transforms people, and how it is transformed by their interpretations of it. A novel that cements Riku Onda as a virtuosic talent." —Foreword Reviews (starred review)
"The tension [is] exquisitely maintained through the final note." —Booklist
This information about Honeybees and Distant Thunder was first featured
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Any "Author Information" displayed below reflects the author's biography at the time this particular book was published.
Riku Onda is a No.1 bestselling author in Japan. She grew up in Sendai and attended Waseda University, where she played the alto saxophone. In 1991, Onda won an award with her first novel, and became a full-time writer. In 2003 she moved to South America, where she reported for NHK television on Mayan and Incan culture. As her father was a music enthusiast, Onda grew up listening to classical music and played the piano from an early age, before discovering Western rock and jazz. Honeybees and Distant Thunder was the most celebrated novel of the year when it first published in Japan, winning two major literary awards: the Japan Booksellers Prize and the Naoki Prize (no other novel has won both in the same year). In 2019, it was made into a major Japanese film.
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