Everyone Brave is Forgiven
by Chris Cleave
England
Set in World War II London, this love story tells the tale of three young people trying to make their mark in a world that is dark and full of pain. Mary is naïve and idealistic, but good-hearted and determined to shun her wealthy upbringing in favor of finding a way to make a difference in the world. She volunteers to help in the war effort, but her dreams of playing a dramatic role as a spy or something similar are dashed when she is assigned to teach at a local school in place of a young male teacher who is now a soldier. She travels with her young charges to the English countryside, part of the British elite's effort to protect their children from the risk of bombing in London, but she soon returns after witnessing the discrimination and abuse of children of color. Fiercely determined to make her mark, Mary creates her own school in London and begins to teach the children who were left behind or treated so poorly that their parents brought them home.
There, she meets Tom, a school administrator, and they fall in love ... sort of. Mary seems to be going through the motions, as if she believes she ought to be in love with Tom but isn't quite sure she really is. Tom is a good man who had intentionally avoided enlisting in the military, and he is very distraught about his best friend Alistair's choice to volunteer as a soldier. When Mary and Alistair meet, they are inexplicably drawn to each other and resist their feelings frantically ... to no avail. The love triangle ends tragically, as one would expect in a story about love during wartime.
I enjoyed Everyone Brave is Forgiven, but not nearly as much as the author's other book ...
Little Bee
by Chris Cleave
Nigeria and England
Little Bee is the name of a young Nigerian girl who flees the violence in her country and arrives as a refugee in England, where she seeks and finds the young British couple with whom she had a chance and tragic encounter on the shore of her country a few years before. The novel is told in Little Bee's strong and inspirational voice. She tells us of her childhood and the constant fear that she and her sister lived with while growing up in a remote village, always under threat of an impending attack. She tells us of the wealthy, somewhat self-absorbed journalists who come to Nigeria for a vacation, find themselves confronted with a violent example of Little Bee's daily life, and arrogantly believe they can influence the outcome, with horrific, life-altering consequences for all of them.
When they go their separate ways, they leave the Nigerian beach with the assumption they will never see each other again. But Little Bee finds herself in a refugee holding cell in England and after escaping, makes her way to their home to ask for help. The implications are enormous and powerful.
This is a novel that you just have to read for yourself. Even the Amazon description says, "We don't want to tell you too much about this book. It is a truly special story and we don't want to spoil it. ... The story starts [on an Africa beach], but the book doesn't. And it's what happens afterward that is most important. Once you have read it, you'll want to tell everyone about it. When you do, please don't tell them what happens either. The magic is in how it unfolds."
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