Hazel McHaffie

The Other Hand

How about this for the blurb on the back cover of a book?
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. Nevertheless, you need to know enough to buy it so we will just say this:
This is the story of two women. Their lives collide one fateful day, and one of them has to make a terrible choice. Two years later, they meet again – the story starts there …

Brave publisher, huh? Trusting author.

Well, I did buy The Other Hand by Chris Cleave, on the strength of this intriguing sales pitch. I was hoovering up books in Scotland’s National Book town, after all! And wow! it is indeed a special story. It was shortlisted for the 2008 COSTA Novel Award and has attracted terrific reviews: ‘a feat of literary engineering’,  ‘a timely challenge to reinvigorate our notions of civilized decency’, ‘profound, deeply moving and yet light in touch, it explores the nature of loss, hope, love and identity with atrocity its backdrop’. All richly deserved.

I can’t reveal the plot to you because the instruction from the publisher is specific:
Once you’ve 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 in how it unfolds.

And ‘unfolds’ is the right world. The past and present are seamlessly woven together, each action having an influence which ripples out to create a reaction, which in turn has new consequences. Masterly plotting. And the writing is wonderful, the voices and dialogues pitch-perfect. Somehow the author manages to juxtapose gut-wrenching horror and laugh-out-loud humour without compromising either. I’ve no idea how he does it. From the first line: Most days I wish I was a British pound coin instead of an African girl‘ to the closing Nigerian proverb: If your face is swollen from the severe beatings of life, smile and pretend to be a fat man, this book will hold you in a vice-like grip at once shocking and deeply affecting but also entertaining.

Star of the show is the character who pens the above first sentence: Little Bee, a 16-year-old orphaned Nigerian refugee with impeccable Queen’s English. Indeed she often likens herself to ‘Queen Elizabeth the Second of England’. She and her story will haunt you for days after you’ve read her final words. And we all need to wake up to stories like hers.

, , , , , ,

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.