Monday, April 18, 2016

Everyone Brave Is Forgiven by Chris Cleave review – lives transformed by war

The author of the bestselling The Other Hand turns historical novelist but retains his power to locate the personal in the political

‘Skill and empathy’: Chris Cleave’s fourth novel was inspired by the lives of his grandparents.
‘Skill and empathy’: Chris Cleave’s fourth novel was inspired by the lives of his grandparents. Photograph: James Emmett
Chris Cleave is one of those novelists you may well have heard of, whether or not you’ve read any of his books. His eerily prescient debut, Incendiary – narrated by a widow who has lost both her husband and young son in a terror attack orchestrated by Osama bin Laden – was published on the day of the 7/7 bombings in London. His second novel, The Other Hand, about the harrowing experiences of a 16-year-old Nigerian girl and her interactions with a middle-class London family, became an international bestseller in the summer of 2009. And his third novel, Gold, published on the eve of the London Olympics, told the story of three cyclists preparing for the 2012 Games.

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