“The other hand” by Chris Cleave

In our last English class with Hendrik on Monday we were watching episodes of “Surprising Europe” on YouTube. The episode I had to watch was called “Taking the Leap” and it showed immigrants on their life-threatening journey to the EU and their first steps in the destination country.

The most shocking part of this short clip was the scene where the detention centres were shown. I looked up the definition and to put it in a nutshell, it’s an institution where people are detained when they are suspected to be an illegal immigrant. The conditions in most of these centres are inhuman. There are lots of demonstrations of immigrants who claim that they have been tortured during their time in the detention centres.

The video reminded me of a book I had read which is called “The other hand” by Chris Cleave. It was written in 2011 and concentrates on current social problems. The book was the number one New York Times bestseller. The author tells an ambitious and fearless story from the jungles of Africa via a shocking incident on a Nigerian beach to a magazine office of London. I can’t really decide on the genre of the book, so I would say it is partly thriller partly multicultural narration. It deals with issues of immigration, globalisation, political violence and personal accountability.

The book begins in an immigration detention centre in London where Little Bee, a 16-year-old girl from Nigeria, has spent (was detained) the last two years. In-between Little Bee tries to perfect her British-English accent and to adopt British-serious behaviour. She fled from Nigeria, because her village had been destroyed by men who had searched for oil. When Little Bee manages to escape from the centre with three women, she phones the only British person she knows: the columnist and journalist Andrew O’Rourke. Little Bee encountered Andrew and his wife Sarah two years ago on a fateful day on the beach of Nigeria. Now Little Bee is travelling from the detention centre to the O’Rourke family in Kingston-upon-Thames and shakes the family to its foundations.

The story ends where it has begun: at the Beach in Nigeria - with a powerful and emotive finale. I was shocked after founding out that the action takes place in reality. This is definitely one of the most touching stories I have ever read and I can highly recommend you the book.

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