Little Bee

Little Bee by Chris Cleave

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I loved this book, and so did everyone in my bookclub. It’s not perfect – at times it is overly melodramatic, the characters border on being caricatures and often act in unbelievable ways, but it is fiction after all. I liked the way the narration alternated between Sarah and Little Bee and even became blurred at times and you didn’t know who was talking. This is a book that will make you think about the world we live in, about our comfort zones and how we push away and ignore things that are disturbing. It is about the things we do to feel safe from horrors both imagined and real. It is about how we treat refugees, and the moral decisions we make. And hopefully, it will shake up your complacency and make you a little more conscious of the global world we live in, and the very real human cost of our Western greed. The ending is really hard to believe (who in their right mind would…) but not to give too much away, it is open ended enough that you can choose to give Little Bee a happy ending, or even hope for a sequel.

Book Description: British couple Andrew and Sarah O’Rourke, vacationing on a Nigerian beach in a last-ditch effort to save their faltering marriage, come across Little Bee and her sister, Nigerian refugees fleeing from machete-wielding soldiers intent on clearing the beach. The horrific confrontation that follows changes the lives of everyone involved in unimaginable ways.Two years later, Little Bee appears in London on the day of Andrew’s funeral and reconnects with Sarah. Sarah is struggling to come to terms with her husband’s recent suicide and the stubborn behavior of her four-year-old son, who is convinced that he really is Batman. The tenuous friendship between Sarah and Little Bee that grows, is challenged, and ultimately endures is the heart of this emotional, tense, and often hilarious novel.Considered by some to be the next Kite Runner, Little Bee is an achingly human story set against the inhuman realities of war-torn Africa. Wrenching tests of friendship and terrible moral dilemmas fuel this irresistible novel.