The Other Hand

We don t want to tell you what happens in this book. It is a truly special story and we don t want to spoil it.

Nevertheless, you need to know enough to buy it so we will just say this:

This is the story of two women. Their lives collide one fateful day, and one of them has to make a terrible choice. Two years later, they meet again the story starts there

Once you have read it, you ll want to tell your friends about it. When you do, please don t tell them what happens either. The magic is in how it unfolds.

Short-listed for Costa Prize: Novel 2008 (UK)

“You stay in thrall to the bittersweet end.”

Cleave follows his story to a powerful and emotive end. If The Other Hand flirts with melodrama, that is a fault Cleave shares with Dickens and for the same reason. He means it. - Sydney Morning Herald

A considered manifesto on the enormous international problem of asylum-seeking. The act on which the title, and the moral architecture of the novel, turns is described in the same page-turning way. - The Weekend Australian

'Although humour is an important ingredient in this novel, it's a book with a lot of heart and insight, and despite an unlikely ending, it is profound and provocative and beautifully written.' - Sunday Telegraph

'Besides sharp, witty dialogue, an emotionally charged plot and the vivid characters' ethical struggles, The Other Hand delivers a timely challenge to reinvigorate our notions of civilised decency Shocking, exciting and deeply affecting. - The Canberra Times

Cleave achieves an incredibly deft balance between the serious and amusing, with a masterful ability to flit lightly between humour and deep trauma and sadness while making it seem like the most natural transition in the world. - Sunday Mail

Cleave is a stunning writer, one who doesn't shy from difficult issues, but dresses his approach to them with wit, warmth and compassion, meaning The Other Hand is a serious novel all the better for being seriously funny.' - Weekend Goldcoast Bulletin

Chris Cleave can afford to talk up to his readers not down, because he respects their intellect. - Weekend Australian, author interview

Cleave is a genuine optimist, he believes in the goodness of humanity and that's what makes this a truly pleasurable book to read. - The Courier Mail

Chris Cleave's debut novel INCENDIARY was an international bestseller published in 20 countries. It won the Somerset Maugham Award, the US Book-of-the-Month Club's First Fiction award and the Prix Special du Jury at the French Prix des Lecteurs, was shortlisted for the 2006 Commonwealth Writers Prize, and is now a major motion picture.

Inspired by his early childhood in West Africa, THE OTHER HAND is Chris Cleave's second novel. He is married with two children, and lives in London. He keeps a website at

We don t want to tell you what happens in this book. It is a truly special story and we don t want to spoil it.Nevertheless, you need to know enough to buy it so we will just say this:This is the story of two women. Their lives collide one fateful day, and one of them has to make a terrible choice. Two years later, they meet again the story starts there Once you have read it, you ll want to tell your friends about it. When you do, please don t tell them what happens either. The magic is in how it unfolds.

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