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Little Bee: A Novel by Chris Cleave
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Little Bee: A Novel (edition 2009)

by Chris Cleave

MembersReviewsPopularityAverage ratingMentions
8,3945231,016 (3.74)382
A haunting novel about the tenuous friendship that blooms between two disparate strangers--one an illegal Nigerian refugee, the other a recent widow from suburban London.
Member:SignoraEdie
Title:Little Bee: A Novel
Authors:Chris Cleave
Info:Simon & Schuster (2009), Hardcover, 288 pages
Collections:Your library
Rating:***1/2
Tags:None

Work Information

The Other Hand by Chris Cleave

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    The Road Home by Rose Tremain (JenMDB)
  11. 10
    Half of a Yellow Sun by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie (BookshelfMonstrosity)
    BookshelfMonstrosity: The stories of a impoverished countryside boy and two upper-class sisters are told against the backdrop of the 1960s Biafran War. This book, by one of Nigeria's most famous authors, should appeal to readers interested in Nigeria's history, Nigerian society and the lives of women in Nigeria.… (more)
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    Mornings in Jenin by Susan Abulhawa (vitalstatistics)
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    Hearts and Minds by Amanda Craig (dsc73277)
    dsc73277: "Hearts and Minds" and "Little Bee" have been two of the most compelling books I have read this year. Both deal sympathetically with the experience of migrants to Britain. At times they make for difficult reading, reminding one as they do of how difficult some people's lives are, however, ultimately they are not devoid of hope.… (more)
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    monzrocks: Presents the same intersection/juxtaposition of life in the "first world" vs. life in the "third." Both have great characters.
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    2810michael: På dansk: Den anden hånd

(see all 26 recommendations)

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» See also 382 mentions

English (502)  Dutch (7)  German (3)  Spanish (3)  Finnish (2)  Swedish (1)  Portuguese (Portugal) (1)  Catalan (1)  Norwegian (1)  Danish (1)  All languages (522)
Showing 1-5 of 502 (next | show all)
Interesting read about a Nigerian refugee in England, who meets up with a woman she briefly encountered in Nigeria. There is some mystery about what happened there, ultimately described as a violent and deadly encounter. The story continues to tell of both the refugee's and the woman's life after they meet again. Part of the book were very good, others were okay. Did not care for the ending. ( )
  nankan | Mar 7, 2024 |
Adversity
  BooksInMirror | Feb 19, 2024 |
This book sells itself by not telling you anything about the story. The summary on Amazon says WE DO NOT WANT TO TELL YOU ABOUT THIS BOOK. I admit, the secrecy made me want to read the book more, however, I think it's completlely unnecessary. They could explain the plot without it cheaping the reading experience in any way.

Little Bee is a quick read -- it took me about two days to finish it. I found some of the passages beautiful but overall I found the book disappointing. Some of the characters, Little Bee in particular, have a lovely take on the world, but the overall plot is unfulfilling.

My biggest problem is that the book is sad, overwhelmingly sad, and since I read for pleasure that's really not what I'm looking for in a novel.

My recomendation: get it from the library, don't buy it. Also, don't read if you don't want sad. And don't expect a mystery. ( )
  hmonkeyreads | Jan 25, 2024 |
The book jacket says "We don't want to tell you WHAT HAPPENS in this book. It is truly SPECIAL STORY and we don't want to spoil it." The back cover has excerpts from ten or more newspapers acclaiming the book as "Ambitious and Fearless", "Stunning", "...Poignant and Compelling," "A Mesmerizing Tour De Force", and on and on. As a result, I suspect my expectations were too high because I was disappointed with the book. I liked the character of Little Bee but didn't care at all about Sarah, who is central to the story. The ending was a mess and without giving anything away here, I find it difficult to believe a mother would willingly put her son in such a dangerous situation. On the plus side, it did call attention to the dehumanizing conditions of the British Immigration and Detention Center and the evils resulting from takeovers of oil rich lands. ( )
  ellink | Jan 22, 2024 |
Very nicely written, poignant, touching - tragic and horrific in parts. Well depicted characters and an engaging plot too (although I couldn't quite buy the final section of the book). Only drawback was that I felt quite manipulated while reading it - many things seemed a little calculated to play on your emotions, and particularly on 1st world guilt.

Also! This was my first Flipback book, and I enjoyed it a lot. I think it's a good format, particularly for commuting. Hopefully they can get the price down a bit. ( )
  thisisstephenbetts | Nov 25, 2023 |
Showing 1-5 of 502 (next | show all)
While the pretext of “Little Bee” initially seems contrived — two strangers, a British woman and a Nigerian girl, meet on a lonely African beach and become inextricably bound through the horror imprinted on their encounter — its impact is hardly shallow. Rather than focusing on postcolonial guilt or African angst, Cleave uses his emotionally charged narrative to challenge his readers’ conceptions of civility, of ethical choice.
 
"Little Bee" leaves little doubt that Cleave deserves the praise. He has carved two indelible characters whose choices in even the most straitened circumstances permit them dignity -- if they are willing to sacrifice for it. "Little Bee" is the best kind of political novel: You're almost entirely unaware of its politics because the book doesn't deal in abstractions but in human beings.
added by VivienneR | editThe Washington Post, Sarah L Courteau (Feb 25, 2009)
 
"Little Bee" is the best kind of political novel: You're almost entirely unaware of its politics because the book doesn't deal in abstractions but in human beings.
 
Book clubs in search of the next "Kite Runner" need look no further than this astonishing, flawless novel about what happens when ordinary, mundane Western lives are thrown into stark contrast against the terrifying realities of war-torn Africa.
 
Cleave has a sharp cinematic eye, but the plot is undermined by weak motivations and coincidences.
added by Shortride | editPublishers Weekly (Nov 10, 2008)
 

» Add other authors (47 possible)

Author nameRoleType of authorWork?Status
Chris Cleaveprimary authorall editionscalculated
Bentinck, AnnaNarratorsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Flosnik, AnneNarratorsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed

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Epigraph
Britain is proud of its tradition of providing a safe haven for people fleeting [sic] persecution and conflict. - From Life in the United Kingdom: A Journey to Citizenship (UK Home Office, 2005)
Dedication
For Joseph
First words
Most days I wish I was a British pound coin instead of an African girl.
Quotations
(Little Bee, p.13/14:) "...and I ask you right here please to agree with me that a scar is never ugly. That's what the scar makers want us to think. But you and I, we must make an agreement to defy them. We must see all scars as beauty (...) Because take it from me, a scar does not form on the dying. A scar means, "I survived".
Through the lobby of the Home Office building, the public sector shuffled past in its scuffed shoes, balancing its morning coffee on cardboard carry trays. The women bulged out of M&S trouser suits, wattles wobbling and bangles clacking. The men seemed limp and hypoxic--half-garroted by their ties. Everyone stooped, or scuttled, or nervously ticked. They carried themselves like weather presenters preparing to lower expectations for the bank-holiday weekend.
We knew what we had: we had nothing. Your world and our world had come to this understanding. Even the missionaries had boarded up their mission. They left us with the holy books that were not worth the expense of shipping back to your country. In our village our only Bible had all of its pages missing after the forty-sixth verse of the twenty-seventh chapter of Matthew, so that the end of our religion, as far as any of us knew, was My God, my god, why hast thous forsaken me? We understood that this was the end of the story. That is how we lived, happily and without hope. I was very young then, and I did not miss having a future because I did not know I was entitled to one.
Compromise, eh? Isn't it sad, growing up? You start off like my Charlie. You start off thinking you can kill all the baddies and save the world. Then you get a little bit older, maybe Little Bee's age, and you realize that some of the world's badness is inside you, that maybe you're a part of it. And then you get a little bit older still, and a bit more comfortable, and you start wondering whether that badness you've seen in yourself is really all that bad at all. You start talking about ten percent.
There were people in that crowd, and strolling along the walkway, from all of the different colors and nationalities of the earth. There were more races even than I recognized from the detention center. I stood with my back against the railings and my mouth open and I watched them walking past, more and more of them. And then I realized it. I said to myself, Little Bee, there is no them. This endless procession of people, walking along beside this great river, these people are you.
Last words
(Click to show. Warning: May contain spoilers.)
Disambiguation notice
The Other Hand (UK) / Little Bee (US)
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Information from the German Common Knowledge. Edit to localize it to your language.
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A haunting novel about the tenuous friendship that blooms between two disparate strangers--one an illegal Nigerian refugee, the other a recent widow from suburban London.

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Book description
Publisher Comments:
We don't want to tell you too much about this book!

It is a truly special story and we don't want to spoil it.

Nevertheless, you need to know something, so we will just say this:

It is extremely funny, but the African beach scene is horrific.

The story starts there, but the book doesn't.

And it's what happens afterward that is most important.

Once you have read it, you'll want to tell everyone about it. When you do, please don't tell them what happens either. The magic is in how it unfolds.
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