It has been a long time since I have read a book with a protagonist so utterly entrancing, so wise and so perfect, that the struggles of that character becomes so real. Little Bee is one of those characters, whose struggles and experiences and wisdom makes the reader forget throughout the whole book her age, and instead brings the reader even deeper into the story. ( )

I can see that there have been mixed reviews for this book but I liked it very much. As with The boy in striped pyjamas it comes with a note on the back cover " We don't want to tell you what happens in this book. It is a truly special story and we don't want to spoil it." I personally am glad that I did not know anything about the story before I read it. It is a story that is shocking at times and I was glad that the events could unfold naturally for me so that I could feel all the emotions
But for those who don't mind a bit more information. The story is told in two voices that of an English woman Sarah, and a refugee from Nigeria called Little Bee. The story begins with Little Bee escaping from a detention centre in England where she has spent the last two years. She phones Andrew O'Rourke whom she met with his wife Sarah on a beach in Nigeria two years earlier during a time of crisis. What happened at this time is not revealed till later in the book but suffice to say hearing from Little Bee causes Andrew great distress.
Something happened then that shook the O'Rourke family to the core and caused conflict between Andrew and Sarah as they reacted to the event in different ways.. Andrew on his return suffered from depression which lead to his committing suicide so that the story had to be told from the point of view of Sarah and Little Bee and even Little Bee has secrets that she is keeping to herself. Add to the mix Sarah's lover Laurence and her son Charlie who spends all his time dressed up in a batman costume and you have the full cast. Sarah is determined to help Little Bee which causes a wedge between her and Lawrence and a thoughtless action by Charlie leads to Little Bee falling into the hands of the immigration officials. I am not sure if Sarah's response is quite credible to me but the story moves on to I guess the only conclusion there could be as a result of Sarah's actions. A book which gave me a lot to think about.
It was a story that kept my attention from the beginning with well developed characters. I liked the language Cleave used to show the contrast between life in Nigeria and life in England eg
"you live in a world of machines and you dream of things with beating hearts. We dream of machines because we see where beating hearts have left us" ( )

link to reading group guide
http://books.simonandschuster.com/Lit...

The book was good. I really enjoyed how the story flowed (even thought there was no precise ordering) it was clear when something occurred in the past of the present. Cleave is really an artful narrator. (However, I wasn't the biggest fan of the little boy's grammar errors, it felt very contrived).

The characters were shown to us in a lovely manner and the story interesting and at times shocking. You care about the characters (except maybe Lawrence) even thought they are not perfect.

However, given the hype I had heard I was a little disappointed. It is not a favorite book despite being a very lovely read. I read it quickly, which is always the measure of a good book. Because I can't put my finger on what I think shoudl have been different, maybe had I not had such high expectations I would have had a more glowing review.

It really is quite a well written story. There are some quite insightful sentences that I had to mark as I read.

One of the best parts truly is finding out what happened/happens and seeing it unfold.
Given that there are several reviews that provide good explanations (in appropriate detail) about what the story is about, I will leave you to read them for that information. ( )

The cover of "The Other Hand" promises a great deal, that "it is a truly special story" and "once you have read it, you'll want to tell your friends about it ... the magic is in how it unfolds". So it is not a story which could be accused of being bashful, and this is unfortunate given that greater modesty would be more than just polite, but appropriate.

"The Other Hand" follows the story of Sarah, a fashion magazine editor and Little Bee, a Nigerian immigrant. Having met once, many years previously, their lives intersect again. Those expecting mind-warping plot twists in the style of "The Crying Game" or "Life of Pi" will be disappointed; the plot is essentially vanilla although it is nicely written with some interesting dialogue. The characters, though, are the let down. Little Bee and her fellow immigrants are all interesting, although there is little to them beyond the fact that they are good people, tragic, and with a handful of striking traits. The westerners, though, are awful. Sarah, the second main character, is a successful, sassy London professional; she belongs in a chick-lit novel. She is, of course, bored of her massive house, loyal husband, evident wealth and job editing an "edgy" woman's magazine; despite her much-heralded strength and independence she spends most of the novel being propped up by Little Bee, between which she makes various mistakes so fundamental that it is hard not to think of her as a little bit slow (she doesn't realise there's conflict in the Niger Delta, yet at the same time she's constantly trying to introduce edgy current affairs pieces into her magazine). The characters get worse from there.

"The Other Hand" deals with the very serious issue of asylum, but that does not make it a serious novel. It lacks subtlety, from the initial opening letter by the editor (a story as special as "Schindler's Ark", apparently) to the broad brush of its characters to the notes directing the reader to dictionaries of Nigerian patois. Although well written and well intentioned, this novel's high self-regard needs a healthy dose of realism. ( )