Little Bee

I just finished the novel Little Bee. "No one likes each other, but everyone loves U2" is one of the truths in the book. Little Bee is a novel that tells the story of a Nigerian orphan and a British couple whose lives become entwined through some seemingly random events. It's an extremely well-written novel and I'm thinking I need to read Chris Clive's other novel now.

The beauty of the story is in the narrative that Clive gives us alternating chapters between narration from the Nigerian Little Bee and the British Sarah. Both have very different perspectives on their shared story that gives the reader a sense of time and space that might be missing from the telling by either one of them alone.

As the story unfolded, I realized that the themes were much deeper than just the story of these women and the people around them. It is about what it means to be part of a global community and how that may help and harm us. I found it to be a wonderful way to think about these profound ideas while enjoying such a skillfully crafted story.