Napoleon's Beekeeper

Winner ofthe prestigious 'Premio Novela Breve Juan March Cencillo'

May 1814. On the island of Elba, the beekeeper Andrea Pasolini awaitsthe arrival of the defeated, exiled emperor, Napoleon Bonaparte. Pasolini is a self-taughtdisciple of the Enlightenment, whose first love is reading books on philosophyand apiculture a secret, illicit activity he undertakes in his cellar atnight. The defeated emperor is likewise fascinated, with the swarming of beesand the beauty of honey. From a distance, an obsessive interest developsbetween the two men, as anticipation builds around a visit by the emperor to inspectPasolini's beehives.

In his novella, Jos Luis de Juan meticulously interweaves historical sources with an imaginingof the lives of two very different men, one a humble apiarist on an island, theother also born on an island who aspires to be the ruler of the universe.Amid an atmosphere of exchangeable identities, powerful dreams, furtive plotsand deferred uprisings, in favour of Napoleon or against him, each man carriesthe conviction that the social organisation of bees holds the key to how thefuture will unfold.