The Other Hand by Chris Cleave (published as Little Bee in the USA)

This was suggested as our next book club read.  I hadn’t heard anything about it, or about the author.  I’m not quite sure why.  I must have had my head in the sand, because this is a book which has received huge attention and been nominated for several significant awards.

It’s hard to know what to tell you, or how much, because the author does not want you to know too much before you begin.  The blurb on the back specifically says: “Once you have read it, you’ll want to tell your friends about it.  when you do, please don’t tell them what happens either.  The magic is how it is unfolds.”  This is right on all counts.  I want you to go and find this book immediately.  Then set aside four or five hours.  You won’t want to be disturbed, and you will want to read this all in one go.

What I will tell you, without giving anything away, is this.  The book is about two women, a Nigerian refugee, and a British magazine editor; the way their lives intersect at crucial moments, how they reach those moments and how they respond to them.  It is about such enormous concepts as globalisation, the treatment of women in war, and the clash between bureaucracy and humanity.  It is also about more mundane and routine tragedies like depression and adultery.

This makes it sound like one of those ‘dull but worthy’ reads that will sit on your shelf making you feel guilty.  Eventually you will pick it up out of obligation.  It is not.  You will love it.  It may seem hard to believe, given what I’ve just told you, but it’s often hilarious.  The characters are not abstractions grappling with the weight of these ideas.  They are real and authentic people, making difficult choices.  This is also the most convincing book written by a man from the perspective of women that I can ever remember reading.

I will also tell you what I will tell my book group.  This is the best book we have read together and I would give it ten out of ten.