275- ] English Literature - Chris Cleave

275- ] English Literature

Chris Cleave

Born                            14 May 1973 (age 52)

London, England

Occupation                 Writer

Language                    English

Alma mater                 Balliol College, Oxford

Subject                        Literary fiction

Notable works            Incendiary

The Other Hand 

Biography

Cleave was born in London on 14 May 1973, brought up in Cameroon and Buckinghamshire, and educated at Dr Challoner's Grammar School and Balliol College, Oxford, where he studied experimental psychology. He lives in the UK with his French wife and three children.

Writing

Cleave's debut novel Incendiary was published in twenty countries and has been adapted into a feature film starring Michelle Williams and Ewan McGregor. The novel won a 2006 Somerset Maugham Award and was shortlisted for the 2006 Commonwealth Writers' Prize. The audiobook version was read by Australian actor Susan Lyons.

His second novel, The Other Hand, was released in August 2008 and was described as "A powerful piece of art... shocking, exciting and deeply affecting... superb" by The Independent. It has been shortlisted for the 2008 Costa Book Awards in the Novel category. Cleave was inspired to write The Other Hand from his childhood in West Africa. It was released in the US and Canada in January 2009 under the title Little Bee.

Gold, his third novel, was called "bold and brave" by The Observer.

Cleave is a columnist for The Guardian in London. From 2008 until 2010 he wrote a column for The Guardian entitled "Down with the kids".

Bibliography

Novels

Incendiary (2005) The Other Hand (2008, Sceptre), published as Little Bee in the United States and Canada.

Gold (2012)

Everyone Brave Is Forgiven (2016)

Short stories

"Quiet Time"

"Fresh Water"

"Oyster"

Incendiary (novel)

Incendiary is a novel by British writer Chris Cleave. When it was first published in the summer of 2005, it garnered international headlines for the eerie similarity of its plot to the 7 July 2005 London bombings in England carried out on the same day it was published. It won the 2005 Book-of-the-Month Club First Fiction Award. A 2008 film with the same name was based on it.

Narrative

The novel is written as an epistolary first-person novel, in which, the main character, a young mother, writes a letter to Osama bin Laden after a London incendiary bombing.

Plot summary

A young mother's life is blown apart when her husband and four-year-old son are killed during a bombing at a football match. Following this, the young mother falls into a depression. While the young mother tries to battle her depression, she also must fight the guilt of committing adultery the same day of her son's and husband's death.

Critical reception

The Washington Post called it "A mezmering tour de force". New York Times said it was "As benefits good genre fiction, Cleave's characters are sustained, driven and informed by the plot, which dictates and governs all".[1] It also is considered to be "strong, intelligent, heart-breaking and realistic. The author said that principally, the novel is about the feelings of a mother for its children and the aftermath of a terrorist attack.

Film adaptation

For the movie, see Incendiary (film).

The film, loosely based on the book, was released in the UK on Friday, October 24, 2008. It was directed by Sharon Maguire and starring Michelle Williams in the main role, supported by Ewan McGregor as Jasper Black, and Matthew MacFadyen as Terrence Butcher. Unlike the book, the film received poor reviews, receiving 23% of approval in the site Rotten Tomatoes.