Little Bee

Book No: 37
Title: Little Bee
Author: Chris Cleave
Genre: Fiction
Completed: 7/12/09
No. of Pages: 266
Rating: 4/5*****

This is a portion of the blurb on the inside cover of this book:

“Once you have read it, you’ll want to tell your friends about it. When you do, please don’t tell them what happens. The magic is in how the story unfolds.”

Pretty interesting request isn’t it? Yet I have to agree with it, the beauty of this book is in the unfolding. I do need to write a review so I’ll be as informative as I can without revealing too much.

Two British citizens, Sarah and Andrew, are vacationing in Nigeria. They have an encounter on the beach with a young Nigerian girl, the Little Bee of the title, and her sister. What happens on the beach that day will have ramifications for all four of these people; ramifications that completely alter their lives.

Two years later Bee is in a relocation center in England, when she reaches out to Sarah and Andrew, the only people she knows in England and her reappearance in their lives sets off a series of events and revelations that reopen old wounds that were always festering under the surface.

The story is told in alternating chapters from Little Bee’s and Sarah’s point of view. The writing is beautiful and heartbreaking, some of the lines in the book are meant to read over and over. I could not put this book down and read it in one day; I had to know how everything would turn out. The ending isn’t an all’s well that ends well finish, but it is realistic and hopeful.

So you may wonder why not five stars? Honestly it was because of the character of Sarah and her friend Lawrence. I didn’t like them, not at all. They seemed selfish, self absorbed and even when they try to do something good it seems as if there is always an underlying motive. However the character of Little Bee and her story made the whole book for me. I promise that you will think about refugees in a whole new light.

My favorite quote from the book:

“If your face is swollen from the severe beatings of life, smile and pretend to be a fat man.” – Nigerian proverb.