"The Secret Life of Bees", by Sue Monk Kidd, is a first-person narrative through the eyes of 14-year-old Lily Owens, a white girl in 1964 South Carolina who runs away with her African-American maid Rosaleen in search of clues to reveal her mother's past. From the gecko, Lily discloses the abusive conditions of living with her father, T. Ray, since the violent death of her mother that she expresses was her fault and longs to find some answers that will help her move on. As further events unfold, Rosaleen and Lily manage to escape to Tiburon, a city she finds her mother had spent time in, and hunt down an African-American honey farmer, August Boatwright, to whom they find after stumbling across her honey jar with a Black Virgin Mary on it. August