what i’m reading: little bee by chris cleave

I have had Chris Cleave’s Little Bee for a very long time. I must have read something about it somewhere and decided that it is my kind of book. A few years ago, my sister-in-law bought me a copy of it along with other books because I had put Little Bee on my Amazon list.

When I read the opening line, I knew that it really was my kind of book. It goes like this:

“Most days I wish I was a British coin instead of an African girl.”

See, you immediately get the picture. As for me, after reading the first line, I knew this book was so me. A good opening line or a paragraph does that to you.

It took me a few years to get around to reading it though. What made me pick up Little Bee again was that I found another Chris Cleave book at our local Salvation Army shop recently. The Other Hand. I loved the introduction on its back cover. When I started to read its first paragraph, I realised that it was the same book! Little Bee is The Other Hand in the UK.

I’m telling you… Little Bee is one of the best books I have recently read. It is achingly beautiful, tragicomic at times, incredibly vivid and sad, really sad. Well, I didn’t expect it to be light-hearted. Because, you get the picture when you read the first paragraph. And the ending leaves you thinking.

Little Bee was the first Chris Cleave book I have ever read but I assure you he is clearly a master storyteller. I absolutely LOVED the way he weaved all those insignificant tiny little details into the story only to surprise you later on as the story progresses.

Because I loved Little Bee so much, I tracked down a signed American edition of it. It’s already shipped. You know, I’m a collector of American first editions?