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Chris Cleave Biography, Books, and Similar Authors

Author Biography  | Interview  | Books by this Author  | Read-Alikes

Chris Cleave
Photo: Lou Abercrombie

Chris Cleave

Chris Cleave Biography

Chris Cleave is a novelist and a columnist for The Guardian newspaper in London.

His debut novel Incendiary won a 2006 Somerset Maugham Award, was shortlisted for the 2006 Commonwealth Writers Prize, won the United States Book-of-the-Month Club's First Fiction award 2005 and won the Prix Spécial du Jury at the French Prix des Lecteurs 2007.

Inspired by his childhood in West Africa and by an accidental visit to a British concentration camp, Chris Cleave's second novel is titlled The Other Hand in the UK, Australia, New Zealand and South Africa. It is titled Little Bee in the US and Canada.

Chris Cleave has been a barman, a long-distance sailor, a teacher of marine navigation, an internet pioneer and a journalist. He lives in London with his French wife and three mischievous Anglo-French children.

Chris Cleave's website

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Interview

Chris Cleave talks about Incendiary (2006), in which a distraught woman writes a letter to bin Laden after her family are killed by a massive suicide bomb; and about Little Bee (2008), which "delivers a timely challenge to reinvigorate our notions of civilized decency."

In two separate interviews Chris Cleave talks about Incendiary (2006), in which a distraught woman writes a letter to bin Laden after her family are killed by a massive suicide bomb; and Little Bee (2008) which "delivers a timely challenge to reinvigorate our notions of civilized decency."

A Conversation with Chris Cleave about Little Bee

Why did you choose to open the novel with the quote from Life in the United Kingdom: A Journey to Citizenship? What does the typo in this quote mean for you?

The quote is "Britain is proud of its tradition of providing a safe haven for people fleeting [sic] persecution and conflict." I took it from Life in the United Kingdom, which is the text book given to immigrants preparing for their citizenship test in the UK. It covers British history, government and etiquette. It offers the excellent advice "If you spill a stranger's drink by accident, it is good manners (and prudent) to offer to buy another." Less gloriously, though, its summary of British history is rather selective, and the work as a whole is riddled with inaccuracies and typographical errors. My belief is that if a refugee is prepared to walk away from a regime ...

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Books by this Author

Books by Chris Cleave at BookBrowse
Everyone Brave is Forgiven jacket Gold jacket Little Bee jacket Incendiary jacket
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Read-Alikes

All the books below are recommended as read-alikes for Chris Cleave but some maybe more relevant to you than others depending on which books by the author you have read and enjoyed. So look for the suggested read-alikes by title linked on the right.
How we choose read-alikes

  • Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

    Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

    Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie was born in Nigeria in 1977. She is from Abba, in Anambra State, but grew up in the university town of Nsukka where she attended primary and secondary schools and briefly studied Medicine and ... (more)

    If you enjoyed:
    Little Bee

    Try:
    The Thing Around Your Neck
    by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

  • Sefi Atta

    Sefi Atta

    Sefi Atta was born in Lagos, Nigeria, in 1964 and currently divides her time between the United States, England and Nigeria. She qualified as a Chartered Accountant in England, a Certified Public Accountant in the United ... (more)

    If you enjoyed:
    Little Bee

    Try:
    A Bit of Difference
    by Sefi Atta

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