- Receive a 20% discount off the regular price of the book at the Concordia University Bookstore.
In collaboration with the Westmount Public Library, join fellow Concordia alumni to discuss Chris Cleave’s profound novel, Little Bee:
7 p.m.– 9 p.m.
Westmount Public Library
4574 Sherbrooke St. W., Westmount
The story in Chris Cleave’s Little Bee is told from the perspectives of two characters: Little Bee, an illegal refugee, and Sarah, a British journalist. While often light in touch, Little Bee poignantly explores the nature of loss, hope, love and identity.
RSVP by December 1, 2010
Online: alumni.concordia.ca/register
Phone: 514-848-2424, ext. 4397
Synopsis
Little Bee, by Chris Cleave, first appeared in North America in 2010. It was originally published under the title The Other Hand in the United Kingdom in 2008.
The novel is told from two distinct perspectives: Little Bee, an illegal refugee, and Sarah, a British journalist. These two characters’ lives are entwined one fateful day on the beach in Nigeria. While Sarah and her husband, Andrew, take a second honeymoon to Nigeria to save their marriage, they become involved in a tense situation with Little Bee, her sister and a group of armed terrorists. One of these people makes a great sacrifice to save Little Bee—but not her sister—from being murdered; however, the guilt and consequences of these choices play out in the rest of the story.
After her sister’s murder, Little Bee is found and taken to prison, where she meets many other refugees with heart-wrenching stories of torture and murder. When she is mistakenly released from prison, Little Bee travels to England to find Sarah and Andrew.
Sarah’s story, though not as violent, is also complex. Trying to deal with her husband’s suicide, her lingering affair, her young son and her high-powered executive position, Sarah’s own feelings begin to overtake her life, slowly crumbling her “together” exterior. When Little Bee appears in her garden the day of her husband’s funeral, Sarah is able to find the answers to what happened after that fateful day on the beach and how and why Little Bee comes to England.
The interwoven relationship between these two women is beautiful to read, and Cleave precisely times his comic elements to relieve the heaviness of Sarah’s guilt over her affair and her role, if any, in her husband’s suicide. Little Bee’s presence gives Sarah the strength to make hard choices in her life, including what to do with her lover, Lawrence, and whether or not she should keep her job that does not make her happy. Ultimately, the two characters’ friendship is severely tested.
Stephanie King
Dr. Stephanie King is a professor and researcher of Victorian literature. Stephanie is a FQRSC postdoctoral fellow in the field of Victorian literature at both Concordia and Columbia universities. Her research focuses on the cycle of revenge, exclusion and lawlessness that is provoked by the narrative trope of wills in Victorian and early Edwardian fiction. Previous research questioned Victorian conventions of narrative and gender by introducing the character of the fallen man as an identifiable 19th-century persona.
Stephanie has taught English literature at McGill University and Concordia for the past four years. She has published her work in the Nineteenth-Century Gender Studies journal, the McFarland British Gothic and Sensation Fiction anthology and the Broadview Instructor’s Guide. Besides writing and teaching, Stephanie has been a book club reviewer since 2001. She says she enjoys the lively discussions and intelligent participants at Concordia Alumni Book Club meetings.
