A fateful meeting on a Nigerian beach years before sets the tone for this heartbreaking novel by British author Cleave. London magazine editor Sarah and her husband Andrew are having marital problems. Sarah is involved in an affair and feels she must decide if she wants to stay with her husband and young son, Charlie. When a free invitation comes addressed in her name to the magazine she edits, she decides that the trip to the Nigerian coast would be the perfect getaway to save her marriage.
One perfectly normal, sunny afternoon on the coast turns into a nightmare, when two young girls, Little Bee and her sister, suddenly run towards Sarah and Andrew. They are being chased by soldiers who are destroying area villages in their quest for oil. The soldiers give Andrew an ultimatum – chop off a finger and Little Bee’s sister will live. His decision results in everyone’s lives changing forever.
Perfect for book groups, this quiet and stunning novel shows how a “what if this happened to me?” situation changes everything. Frightening, yet also redemptive, the novel alternates narration between Little Bee and Sarah. It is also a novel about the growing friendship, against many odds, between Sarah and Little Bee, especially since Little Bee shows up on Sarah’s doorstep many years later – and also on the day of Andrew’s memorial service. How did she survive and know how to find Sarah? What led Andrew to take his life? All the mysteries are solved by the heart-wrenching end that readers can see slowly building up. Cleave, also the author of the outstanding novel, Incendiary, is definitely a writer to watch. I also found this novel to be very similar to Mister Pip by Lloyd Jones, a review of which can be read at http://www.tcpl.org/sarah/2007/12/74-mister-pip-by-lloyd-jones.html – Reviewed by Sarah
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