DLR LIBRARY BLOG

The Other Hand By Chris Cleave

I'm not sure I would call this book a summer read, but by virtue of the fact that I read it on holiday in Spain, much of it with my feet in the pool and a drink in my hand, I'm going to include it as such.
I don't know what I expected when it was chosen by my book club-the blurb says something about 2 women meeting on a beach and their lives becoming entwined- so far so ho hum.

From the moment I began to read I realised that ordinary is the last word I would use to describe this book.
The story rattles along from the get-go in a voice that rings utterly true to the end, a rare accomplishment for a writer, particularly as the two alternating narrators in the book are both women, and Chris Cleave is a man.

Little Bee is a refugee from the oil wars in Nigeria - a little known event in that country's history- who fetches up in a refugee detainment centre in England. Upon release she sets about finding the English couple she met on a beach in Nigeria while fleeing two years earlier.
Through the characters of Little Bee and Sara,Cleave exposes the endemic callouness of the Western world towards the suffering of fellow human beings due to no more than an accident of birth.
Cleave never preaches; the miracle of this book is that it's very funny in places, and he treats the middle class, well-meaning Sara and Andrew with understanding and compassion. They are not monsters anymore than Little Bee is a saint. In fact, he seems to be saying that ordinary people have it in them to do extraordinary things once they are forced to confront reality.
Despite the serious nature of this book's theme, I finished it feeling uplifted rather than depressed;the writing is sharp and witty, the characterisation is superb, particularly with some of the supporting cast- Sara's 4 year old son, Little Bee's fellow asylum seekers- and I could barely put the book down until it reached the breathtaking climax.

I had never heard of Chris Cleave before I read this-The Other Hand- was in fact shortlisted for The Costa Prize- now I can't wait to read his first book, Incendiary.

Oonagh