The Other Hand

Title: The Other Hand

Author: Chris Cleave

Publisher: Penguin Group (2008)

Genre(s): Fiction, Realistic Fiction

Length: 374 pages

Synopsis:  Though in general I write a neat little synopsis in my own words for each book I read, I will bow to the request on the back of the book and present the back cover word for word:

           

“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.”

My Rating: 5 Stars

My Opinion: My very first thought about this book was that it must be either something really special, or the product of an extraordinarily conceited author and editing staff.  Without any back-cover synopsis, and with a letter from the editor to the reader on the first page of the book cryptically extolling its virtues, I wondered if they were really that desperate for readers, or if maybe, just maybe, this actually is that book.  By this, I mean a once-in-a-lifetime, eye-opening sort of read that is every bit worthy of such praise.  I’m still not sure if this is that book… but it’s as close as any I’ve ever read.  It is remarkable.  The voices of this book’s two protagonists are ringingly clear and beautiful in their sincerity and imperfection.  They take up residence in your thoughts even when you set the book aside, as living and breathing as the people you pass on the street or sit beside in the theatre.  It’s clear how these women’s different worlds have shaped their words and their thoughts and their actions, like trees bent by the prevailing wind.  Horrible and funny and cruel and sweet and painfully relevant, Cleave has managed to tell a story of the sort we seldom hear, but often feel.  I won’t say much more, because really, no matter what your reading preference, you’ll find something in this story that speaks to you, and Cleave and his characters can tell you about it far better than I could.