Incendiary

A Novel

By: Chris Cleave

Narrated by: Tracy-Ann Oberman

From the New York Times bestselling author of Little Bee comes “a gripping story…and portrayal of a woman unraveling in the face of overwhelming grief” (The Boston Globe) a “sensitive, artful, and deft…near-perfect debut” (Baltimore Sun).

A distraught woman writes a letter to one of history’s most notorious criminals after her young son and her husband are killed in a bomb attack at a soccer match in London. In an emotionally raw voice alive with grief, compassion, and startling humor, she tries to convince him to abandon his terror campaign by revealing to him the desperate sadness—“I am a woman built on the wreckage of myself”—and the broken heart of a working-class life blown apart.

A surreal vision made brilliantly, viscerally powerful and undeniable, Incendiary is a “a mesmerizing tour de force” (The Washington Post).

A widow writes to Bin Laden

Rich with historical detail regarding Japan and Korea in the early 1900s. This well-researched story follows a part of history that I knew almost nothing about. Part love story, part the story of immigrants struggling to survive, Pachinko follows a poor fisherman's daughter - her affair and subsequent pregnancy with a rich Japanese man; her refusal to take his money and her marriage to a poor, sickly minister with whom she moves to Japan. In Japan they encounter prejudice against and mistreatment of Korean immigrants. But turning her back on such a rich and powerful man in Japan has its consequences. Following four generations the story has a lot of jumps in time and jumps among characters that often made it confusing and hard to follow.
Pachinko is a National Book Award finalist; for me, It was too long with too many details. I get frustrated when I need to reread pages because the jumps are too wide or the thread is too thin. "If history so often fails to represent all of us, it is not because historians are not interested, but because historians often lack the primary documents of so-called minor characters in history." ⭐️⭐️⭐️🎧 #audiobook
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A perfect title!

I fell in love with Cleave's writing when listening to "Everyone Brave is Forgiven". It was an "MP3 & available now" book from my public library. So it was serendipity rather than choice. I have been recommending it to all my reader friends. "Incendiary" is not for the faint-of-heart, you have to be as forgiving and secure as the teller of the tale. Cleave's writing is amazing! This open letter to Osama is full of little details of everyday life, pain, humor, and love in the midst of the horror of terrorism and trauma. Tracy-Ann Oberman should get more than 5 stars for her remarkable narration. She made the book come alive. Her rapid and gifted switch from character to character floored me!

WOW

Would you consider the audio edition of Incendiary to be better than the print version?

Hearing this story told with the perfect British accent makes a great story, that much better.

What was one of the most memorable moments of Incendiary?

Waking up holding hands with Petra

Any additional comments?

Amazing story. I want more.

Destruction, sadness, pain, hopelessness

I hated this story of violence, destruction, mental illness, hopelessness. Too bad we can’t use a magic eraser to remove things from our minds. This would definitely get erased. I don’t understand the value in it.