Chris Cleave Ebook Boxed Set (40 page)

More Praise for
Incendiary

“Cleave has produced something between a warning and a satire of a selfish and self-indulgent society isolated from the suffering world outside and finally paying the price when noses pressed for so long against the window give way to bombs able to shatter it.”

—
Los Angeles Times Book Review

“An all-around stunning novel. Even if
Incendiary
hadn’t eerily predicted the bombings on the London Tube (and hit British bookstores that same day), it would rank as one of this season’s novels to be missed at your own peril. . . . Cleave has mimicked the voice of a working-class woman with remarkable persuasiveness. . . . A formal journalist, he has brought an eye for detail and political commentary to his fiction. . . . Cleave’s debut could be considered the finest post-9/11 terrorism novel yet.”

—
Bookmarks Magazine

“
Incendiary
is an extremely accessible, exciting and often funny read. . . . Every aspect of the physical and psychological carnage . . . is expressed with an unnervingly raw yet dignified eloquence.”

—
Telegraph Magazine
(London)

“A fire-and-brimstone satire. Cleave shows us example after example of hypocrisy and iniquity in the metropolis. You soon realize that his project is to expose and extract the city’s decay. . . . An urgent, almost thrillerish read.”

—
The Daily Telegraph
(London)

“Cleave maintains this fragile persona with engaging consistency throughout . . . His evocation of the aftermath of the bombing strikes the reader as undeniably authentic . . . Cleave seems to get the ratio between prophecy and satire satisfyingly correct.”

—
The Guardian Book Review
(London)

“A poignant and compelling novel . . . This Everywoman voice . . . is utterly believable and mesmerizing. . . .
Incendiary
works not only as a furiously taut evocation of grieving, unhinged mother love but as a sly political cautionary tale. Either way, it’s well worth reading.”

—
Newsday

“Totally gripping . . . A well-done, even fascinating leap of imagination into an abyss of sadness.”

—
St. Louis Post-Dispatch

“Read
Incendiary
. And I mean it. Read it. It is outrageous, infuriating, heartbreaking, terrifying, and very, very important.”

—Susan G. Cole,
NOW
magazine

“Cleave’s writing is masterful in its understatement . . .
Incendiary
imparts a message both personal and political, timely and timeless, passionate and poignant. This quick read leaves a profound mark.”

—
Bookpage

“Cleave’s is an original voice . . .
Incendiary
stands out among the growing number of 9/11-influenced novels. Cleave’s style conveys raw grief, but its levity prevents the reader from wallowing in the tragedy. A readable, personal take on 21st-century terrorism.”

—
Rocky Mountain News

“A stunning mixture of mind-numbing carnage, anger, humor, sexual tension, betrayal and twisted bureaucratic logic. . . . A brilliantly conceived book that uncannily captures the impact of terrorism on everyday working-class life.”

—
The Tampa Tribune

“Cleave’s book resolutely lays bare all the prejudices, hungers and dirty dealings that drive the world. . . . In his broken heroine, whose long, angry letter is eloquent in its plain-spoken anguish, Cleave has created an unforgettable, incendiary voice for these perilous times.”

—
The Hartford Courant

“Cleave does a remarkable job in depicting the tensions of raw grief and the fierce human will to survive. . . . This startling novel pulls the reader in with the clear and compelling voice of its protagonist. . . . Based on something like truth, it ends with a heartbreaking truth of its own.”

—
The Times-Picayune
(New Orleans)

“The author addresses concerns of government censorship and repression, of xenophobia and the effects terrorism has on the psyche. While these issues are deftly fitted into the story, the novel’s greatest achievement is putting a human face on the effects of terrorism.”

—
The Sunday Tribune-Review
(Greensburg, PA)

“With
Incendiary
, Chris Cleave captures the complexities of a society at war with itself.”

—
Metro
(Santa Cruz)

“A bold and ambitious first novel.”

—
The Gazette
(Montreal)

“Cleave’s narrator is one of the strongest, most convincing personalities to grace the pages of literature in years. . . . [He] has achieved something magical, creating a character who lives on long after the last page has been read.”

—
Winnipeg Free Press

“Stunning. . . . A harrowing and sharply written account of urban panic and the hallucinatory effects of shock.”

—
The Globe and Mail
(Toronto)

“[An] auspicious debut . . . graphic depictions of violence and gore accompany humorous reflections on life and class differences—an odd combination that makes for strangely compelling reading.”

—
Library Journal

“At points, Cleave’s oddly elegant debut novel about the soul-corroding effects of modern terrorism seems like something George Orwell might have written during the blitz.”

—
Kirkus Reviews

Praise for Chris Cleave’s
#1
New York Times
bestseller
Little Bee

* Shortlisted for the Costa Book Award for Best Novel

“An immensely readable and moving second novel. . . . Cleave uses his emotionally charged narrative to challenge his readers’ conceptions of civility, of ethical choice. . . . The character and voice of Little Bee reveal Cleave at his finest. . . . An affecting story of human triumph.”

—
The New York Times Book Review

“
Little Bee
will blow you away. . . . In restrained, diamond-hard prose, Cleave alternates between these two characters’ points of view as he pulls the threads of their dark—but often funny—story tight. What unfolds between them. . .is both surprising and inevitable, thoroughly satisfying if also heart-rending.”

—
The Washington Post

“One of the most vividly memorable and provocative characters in recent contemporary fiction. In Chris Cleave’s heartwarming and heartbreaking
Little Bee
. . .the tone veers quickly between humor and horror, a very dark, biting humor to be sure, but usually skating along a thin blade of irony, the kind to make you laugh with a little grimace. . . . The shift in perspective when we finally learn of Little Bee’s experience that fateful day on the beach is viscerally stunning and would be nearly impossible to bear had we not known of Little Bee’s strength and resilience. Cleave paces the story beautifully, lacing it with wit, compassion, and, even at the darkest moments, a searing ray of hope.”

—
The Boston Globe

“Cleave has a Zola-esque ability to write big and deeply.”

—
USA Today

“Stunning.”

—
People
(Four Stars and a
People
Pick)

“The voice that speaks from the first page of Chris Cleave’s
Little Bee
is one you might never have heard—the voice of a smart, wary, heartsick immigrant scarred by the terrors of her past. . . . Read this urgent and wryly funny novel for its insights into simple humanity, the force that can disarm fear.”

—
O Magazine

“Besides sharp, witty dialogue, an emotionally charged plot and the vivid characters’ ethical struggles,
Little Bee
delivers a timely challenge to reinvigorate our notions of civilised decency.”

—
The Independent
(UK)

“An ambitious and fearless gallop from the jungles of Africa via a shocking encounter on a Nigerian beach to the media offices of London and domesticity in leafy suburbia. . . . Cleave immerses the reader in the worlds of his characters with an unshakable confidence.”

—
The Guardian
(UK)

“Cleave deftly moves the plot between a desolate stretch of Nigerian beach and the home in an upscale London suburb. . . [and] invests poignancy and grace into the unspeakable atrocities that occur throughout the African continent in the name of oil exploration. . . . Heartbreaking one moment, quirky and charming the next,
Little Bee
will draw you in on the first page and linger in the mind long after the last chapter is closed.”

—
St. Louis Post-Dispatch

“Electric. . . . Please don’t fear a dull, worthy novel with a message—this is a suspenseful tale of two women survivors.”

—
Chicago Tribune

“
Little Bee
is a loud shout of talent.”

—
Chicago Sun-Times

“Utterly enthralling page-turner. . .Novelist Cleave does a brilliant job of making both characters not only believable but memorable. . . . These compelling voices grip the reader’s heart and do not let go even after the book’s hyper-tense final page.
Little Bee
is a harrowing and heartening marvel of a novel.”

—
Seattle Post-Intelligencer

“Every now and then, you come across a character in a book whose personality is so salient and whose story carries such devastating emotional force it’s as if she becomes a fixed part of your consciousness. So it is with the charmingly named title character in Chris Cleave’s brilliant and unforgettable
Little Bee
.”

—
The Seattle Times

“Searingly eloquent.”

—
The Daily Mail
(UK)

“It would be a disservice to give away the powerful conclusion of this absorbing and gutsy story, which deals convincingly with ethical and personal accountability.”

—
Oxford Times
(UK)

“Cleave has created a true page-turner, one that leaves the reader asking for more even after the final pages have been read. This is a book not to be missed.”

—
Belleville Intelligencer (Ontario, Canada)

“Book clubs in search of the next
Kite Runner
need look no further than this astonishing, flawless novel . . . Cleave (
Incendiary
) effortlessly moves between alternating viewpoints with lucid, poignant prose and the occasional lighter note. A tension-filled dramatic ending and plenty of moral dilemmas add up to a satisfying, emotional read.”

—
Library Journal

“Cleave is a nerves-of-steel storyteller of stealthy power, and this is a novel as resplendent and menacing as life itself.”

—
Booklist
(starred review)

“A psychologically charged story of grief, globalization and an unlikely friendship. . . . Cleave’s narrative pulses with portentous, nearly spectral energy.”

—
Kirkus Reviews

“The charge, then: buy this book. Resist opening it until you are ready to start reading, for once you begin you’ll find yourself unable to stop. . . . Prepare yourself for Cleave’s poignancy, his control, and the pathos he so effortlessly evinces. Expect astonishment, for this is a work inspiring in depth and style; a work that alters perceptions.”

—
Bookslut

“
Little Bee
will amaze and delight you, and break your heart. It’s one of the finest books I’ve read in years, from its lyrical opening lines to its surprising end. . . . If I were still a bookseller, I’d sell
Little Bee
with a money-back guarantee.”

—
Shelf Awareness.com

Also by Chris Cleave

Little Bee