Incendiary by Chris Cleave

[Louiseog]

A massive terrorist attack on Arsenal's new stadium - a woman grieving for her husband and son - a first novel to set the literary world alight... Angry, funny, controversial and unpredictable, Incendiary will be one of the most talked-about books of 2005. Not since Alex Garland's The Beach has a debut novel used such compulsive storytelling to convey a distopian vision of moral degradation. Not since Roddy Doyle's The Woman Who Walked Into Doors has a male writer created such a powerful female voice. From her first sentence, Cleave's narrator seduces the reader with her biting, deadpan wit, her no-nonsense attitude and her love for her son. Over the next 250 pages we must watch her suffer. Eleven suicide bombers turn the stadium into an inferno during an Arsenal-Chelsea match. Her husband and four-year-old son are blown to smithereens. She is left with an empty ex-Council flat in Bethnal Green and nothing to live for. And so she writes Osama Bin Laden a letter to tell him just what she thinks, a letter that takes the reader into a frightening maze of class-bound relationships - and right to the dark heart of a London under siege. A unique, twisted powerhouse of a novel, Incendiary has had readers staying up all night to finish it, then up half the next night arguing about it. Not since Martin Amis has a writer pinned a generation down on a mat like this and refused to allow it up till it admits it's rotten.

 

Can't find a synopsis (any clues gratefully received) so this is off Fantastic Fiction, started this last night and am loving (although not the right word) definitely a roller coaster read, horrifically sad but also tender and humane. Some people on Amazon hate it but I think its great.

[Louiseog]

Just finished The Other Hand and found this, great again! 11/10

[Ben]

This sounds excellent, my kind of read.

[kernow_reader]

Just finished The Other Hand and found this, great again! 11/10

 

I recently read this one, Louise.

[Purple Princess]

I have The Other Hand on my bookcase, I read the first chapter or two when I first got it but it didn't grab me enough to continue so it's still sitting there

 

So do you think it's worth the effort to continue on? I've read Incendiary and quite enjoyed it (if that's the right thing to say about a book like that )

[Louiseog]

I have The Other Hand on my bookcase, I read the first chapter or two when I first got it but it didn't grab me enough to continue so it's still sitting there

 

So do you think it's worth the effort to continue on? I've read Incendiary and quite enjoyed it (if that's the right thing to say about a book like that )

It does get going, never races along but suddenly I was gripped. I know what you mean about enjoy!

[SueK]

I must admit I hadn't heard of Incendiary and, as an ardent Arsenal supporter, I will probably pick this up. (Arrgh the thought of the Emirates being a terrorist target:irked:).

 

Btw, did you know that years ago, Bin Laden used to support the Arsenal and was often seen at Highbury for the home games.

[Janet]

I thought this was really good, and it's spooky that it was published on the day of the London attacks in 2005. I preferred The Other Hand, but this came a close second.