Blog this item

The Other Hand

By Chris Cleave

(69)

| Paperback | 9780340963425

Like The Other Hand?
Join aNobii to see if your friends read it, and discover similar books!

Book Description

From the Author:
I went to a concentration camp by mistake. I climbed into a minibus with half a dozen other casual labourers and they bussed us off at dawn, destination unknown. I was a student; this was a summer job. The previous day we'd been sanitising toilets. The day before that we'd pain Continue

They waved us through a razor-wire perimeter fence, and then another and another. We were asking each other, why the high security? What are we daubing in bright colours today - Britain's nuclear deterrent? Now thin brown people appeared through the grey mist, fingers clawing the wire, imploring us as we passed. The minibus stopped and we were pushed through a crush of anxious men, pleading and remonstrating in half the languages on earth.

The place was Campsfield House Immigration Removal Centre and it turned out we were there to serve canteen meals to dead men walking. True story. I spent the next three days slapping down scoops of mashed potato onto the plastic plates of Somalis, Sierra Leonians and others so traumatised that their nationalities could not be ascertained. The asylum seekers ate with plastic spoons. It would have been brave to provide men in their predicament with anything sharper.

I learned that there are nearly a dozen concentration camps in Britain today. The Home Office calls them `immigration removal centres' and I guess, since they pay for the razor wire and the plastic spoons, they get to call them what they like. The inmates are rounded up in dawn raids, having committed no evil other than to flee for their lives and seek asylum in the UK, which they are legally entitled to do. After detention in heartbreaking conditions, thousands each year are deported to countries where it is well known that many will be tortured and killed. Forgive me, but this thing we do to preserve Britain's character - it doesn't seem terribly British.

I wrote this novel because of two people I met in that place. The first, an Angolan, showed me a tiny photograph of his daughter. He said, She will starve if they deport me. Can you help? Both of us were crying. What could I do? I asked him if he wanted the carrots or the peas.

The second person, arriving at the head of the canteen queue, told me the following joke in his mellifluous Nigerian English: An asylum seeker goes to a nice hotel and he asks the barman, Sir, can you recommend me a fine port? And the barman says, Yes, Dover, now fuck off back home!

And somehow, in that terrible place, we were laughing.

I wrote those two characters - the tragic and the defiantly funny - into one brave Nigerian girl, Little Bee. She turns up on the doorstep of a slightly lost English woman one morning and simply asks, Can you help? I wanted to explore whether two such souls could save one other. I wanted to discover where, in our world and in the human heart, a person could truly find refuge. I hope you will enjoy the novel.

Critics

'The Other Hand' by Chris Cleave

This is what the blurb on my edition says: And then Valerie, who reads my blog emailed me, to suggest I might like it. "I expected to see it listed as one of the books you have reviewed," she wrote. "And when I didn't, I decided to email you. It is o ... (read full critics)

readingmatters published on Tue, 28 Sep 2010

Africa on the doorstep

A Frankenstein-like irony attends writers and books overtaken by the events they describe. In 1805, in the Prussian town of Jena, the philosopher Hegel was racing to finish The Phenomenology of Spirit with a draconian publishing contract hanging over ... (read full critics)

guardian.co.uk published on Fri, 24 Sep 2010

See all critics

6 Reviews

1 person find this helpful

*** This comment contains spoilers! ***

Over-hyped..From My Amazon review

In my opinion this book has been overhyped. It certainly does not live up to the blurbs on the front cover nor to the editor's enthusiasm in her "letter" to the reader on the fly leaf. Evidently good publicity and not giving an inkling of the plot on the back cover does help to sell books.<br /&g ... (continue)

In my opinion this book has been overhyped. It certainly does not live up to the blurbs on the front cover nor to the editor's enthusiasm in her "letter" to the reader on the fly leaf. Evidently good publicity and not giving an inkling of the plot on the back cover does help to sell books. The book is narrated alternately by Little Bee and Sarah. They have met two years previously on a beach in Nigeria. Little Bee is a refugee and has spent two years in a detention centre. On leaving the centre she phones the O'Rourkes and speaks to Andrew, Sarah's husband, who commits suicide 5 days later. Little Bee arrives in time for his funeral 5 days later. We wonder why Little Bee's phone call could have such an effect on Andrew. Little by little we find out how, why and where they had met in Nigeria. At the end of the book I could not feel for any of the characters apart from Andrew. Sarah despite wanting to help Little Bee and the incident at the beach ( her motives at the beach seem to be more of a one up on her husband than altruism towards LB) comes off as selfish,insensitive; during the previous two years she has happily been bonking her lover Lawrence and ignoring her husband's depression. Lawrence, her lover, a loser, cares only of saving his relationship with Sarah. Little Bee,initially I felt sorry for her but I honestly felt that no matter her plight she deals with her own interests and how could she have stood by and let Andrew do what he did, no matter her position? And Charlie the spoilt four year old son who plays batman, a hero, but who manages unknowingly to get Little Bee into "trouble" twice. The first part of the book is readable as your interest is piqued to find out more about the first meeting between the O'Rourkes and Little Bee. The rest goes downhill from there. The plot and the characters behaviour also is unrealistic, too many parts just do not make sense. Little Bee who has no idea how a mobile works and has not seen one manages to know how to delete Andrew's name from Sarah's phone? and knows how to use one? Sarah after what has happened in Nigeria takes her son there? Charlie is allowed to wear a batman costume (even if he has two) for months? and wears a dirty one to his father's funeral? and has no problem with Lawrence in the house two days later? The list of questions, like the above, that I had during reading the book were endless. Yes it does deal with a problem that there is in Nigeria and asylum seekers but I felt it could have been dealt with in another way.

Is this helpful?

Allybally said on Nov 15, 2009 | Add your feedback

1 person find this helpful

A graphic tale full of heart-ache and stamina.

Is this helpful?

Valentine said on Sep 28, 2009 about the Others edition | Add your feedback

Good general plot, but could have been developed better.

Is this helpful?

Rachaelchauhan said on Jun 21, 2011 about the Others edition | Add your feedback

"Our stories are the tellers of us..."

Is this helpful?

seza said on Mar 25, 2011 about the Others edition | Add your feedback

This is the best novel I have read this year. What is said in the backcover of the book and the letter from the editor is true: you need to read it to feel it, to feel the profound impact it will have on the way you view the world, your moral standards and tolerance.
Narrated alternately by two w ... (continue)

This is the best novel I have read this year. What is said in the backcover of the book and the letter from the editor is true: you need to read it to feel it, to feel the profound impact it will have on the way you view the world, your moral standards and tolerance.
Narrated alternately by two women in a chance encounter, The Other Hand is both a commercial thriller and a literary masterpiece. A must read.
Thanks to A for lending me this book.

Is this helpful?

Tracy W said on Mar 8, 2011 | Add your feedback