Customer Reviews
very good book indeed - By: Mr. Rob Bassett, 28 Dec 2008 
This is an incredible book & should be required reading in 2009. If it doesn't win awards, I'll be astonished. I picked it up & read it in just two days. It's a gripping story, well written, & pulls off the trick of being both funny & sad at the same time. Read this now, so that you can say "I read it before everyone knew about it."
Fluffy Little Kitten in Fluffy Little Kitten Fallls Over
Great story, patchy prose - By: Kevin James, 18 Dec 2008 
This book has floated a lot of boats mainly, I suspect, because the story is so powerful. Emotive, provocative & challlenging, this is a tragic human tale with much contemporary relevance, & I'm glad I managed to fight my way through the frequently ungainly prose & clunking dialogue to the fine conclusion.
At times this novel read like an early draft, not a finished work. Many sentences made me recoil & try to mentallly reorganise them. (Interestingly, the first chapter was the best written. And the last too. An editor's prioritising at work here?) Some sections were very cliche-prone, others too purple. Chapter 8, for example: "I remember the exact day when England became me, when its contours cleaved to the curves of my own body, when its inclinations became my own." This is nauseating guff, & the passage gets worse, straining for literary merit, missing by a mile.
The Other Hand could, I think, make a powerful film, if offered to a screenwriter with more of a gift for natural sounding speech. The conversation between Sarah & Andrew on the Nigerian beach is typicallly tin-eared, beginning: "Listen to that surf, Andrew. It's so unbelievably peaceful here." "I'm still a bit scared, frankly. We should go back inside the hotel compound." (Something bad about to happen then?)
Alternating the story-telling between Sarah & Little Bee was generallly effective, but about halfway through it could probably have been dispensed with altogether as a narrative device. I felt that Cleave was tying himself in expositional knots once the two characters were actuallly under the same roof.
If I found much to criticise, my hostility to the writing style was no doubt increased by the sensational reviews associated with the promotion of this book. These rather oddly stressed how funny the book was, despite the heavy subject matter. Not much made me laugh though.
I must repeat that this is a great story, full of unexpected turns, & it will definitely stay with me. I await the inevtable film with interest.
Book of the Year - By: T-bone, 07 Oct 2008 I think this is the best book I have read this year, maybe even longer.
The summary in the book does not reallly tell you anything, but I was intrigued enough to give it a try, & I am so glad that I did.
This is an amazingly well written book, that made me laugh, made me cry, & kept me up alll night. I started reading late yesterday evening & stayed up until 2am to finish. What an incredible read. This is a book that will instantly grip you, & doesn't let go. I could not sleep after finishing this as it was playing on my mind & I have been thinking about it alll day.
The Other Hand will change the way you view other people, & may even change the way you see yourself. I could not help but look at people in a different way when I went out today, I have a feeling that this book will haunt me for a long time.
I do not want to give anything of the plot away, as there is no way I could do it justice here but suffice to say that this book is funny, moving, uplifting, horrifying & poignant. And the African beach scene IS horrific.
The horror is in the fact that this story is so utterly believable & I think it will stay with you long after you turn the last page.
I will certainly be buying this authors debut after reading this, & will be keenly awaiting any firther offerings from this author.
I reallly do urge you to read this book, it is something special. My only word of warning would be don't start this book when you have an early start the next morning as you will be up alll night reading & thinkign about this book.
incredible.
Simply amazing - By: S. Hidber, 01 Oct 2008 Usuallly, I'm an avid reader of (sorry!) chick lit - & when I sweep through the only English bookshop in Zurich, I'll usuallly pile "feel-good"-novels by Marian Keyes, Jane Green & the likes. Last week, I had my stack of pink girlie books when I passed a display of "The Other Hand", & the tag line intrigued me so much that I bought it, even though the summary revealed absolutely NOTHING about the book.
No less than three different blurbs "urged" me read the book, stopping short of promising me that it would change my life forever... & considering that I had enough feel-good fiction to cover my needs if it ended up a disappointment, I started reading "The Other Hand".
And finished it at three o'clock in the morning. Chris Cleave weaves an incredible story: it's touching, funny, incredibly sad & beautifully written. It's political, but not preachy. It's female characters are so well-written that I had a hard time believing that Chris wasn't short for Christine. Reading it was like eating the perfect, sun-warmed peach, when alll you had ever eaten before was rice crackers. So this is ANOTHER of those over-the-top, please, PLEASE read this book kind of reviews:
Yes, it reallly IS that great. Reallly. REALLY!
The Best Book I've Read This Year. - By: Tony Dunn, 27 Aug 2008 After reading Incendiary a while back I have been eagerly awaiting the publication of this book. It did not disappoint me. I started reading on Saturday morning & from page one I was totallly hooked. I found it reallly difficult to put down, even when cooking. So many books around in my local book shop are "Summer Reads" so this was a refreshing change.
It's the story of Little Bee, a teenage refugee from Nigeria, & Sarah O'Rourke a British magazine editor. Horror makes their worlds collide & from that moment on, none of their lives will be the same again.
The story switches between narratives in the voice of Little Bee & Sarah. The two central characters are very realistic, & Cleave has captured the personalities of the people around them with such striking honest detail & humour it makes an emotional roller-coaster of a read.
This is the kind of book which makes you want to send your family out for the day, lock the doors, take the phone of the hook & just sit & read until you are finished.
