Oh dear, this was one that I know I was supposed to have liked – that millions of Oprah fans would boo me for not enjoying but I think its “a pass.”
The premise of the book is a young girl who is an African refugee and was stuck in a detention center in England for two years and finally escaped. On the day of her release – she made a phone call to a man and he killed himself soon after, before she was able to make it to his home. This man had a family and Little Bee basically lands with the family and as we learn, has a history with both the man and his wife from their vacation to Africa several years prior.
You can all guess the turmoil (and who really vacations in Africa?) that was experienced during this trip - the incident on the beach is a very poignant part of the story and probably the best 20 pages of the book. It does make you very acutely aware of the lives some of these refugees are fleeing and how little alterative they have to jumping ship and hoping for the best in a new country.
Despite that bit of clarity, I thought the rest of the book was kind of slow and I just wasn’t really that invested in the characters. I did learn that British kids are afraid of “baddies” vs. our American “bad guys” – learn new things everyday.
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