Incendiary
- ISBN-10
- 0385671296
- ISBN-13
- 9780385671293
- Series
- Incendiary
- Category
- Fiction
- Pages
- 256
- Language
- English
- Published
- 2011-01-11
- Publisher
- Anchor Canada
- Author
- Chris Cleave
Description
At once a novel and an open letter to Osama bin Laden, Incendiary is a shocking, hilarious, and heartbreaking debut that crashes head on into huge questions of right and wrong, good and evil, madness and sanity. Incendiary is the story of a working class woman who likes her simple life: watching Arsenal matches on the telly with her husband and little boy, fishsticks for dinner in their small flat, the occasional trip to the pub. One spring afternoon the woman, whom we know only by the nickname "Petal", watches her husband and their son head happily off to Ashburton Grove, Arsenal's brand new stadium, to see their favourite team play. A few hours later the horror of a terrorist bombing plays out on her television -- the bombing of Ashburton Grove. "Petal" tells her own story in an extraordinary voice, one both desperate and sharply funny, speaking directly to the man responsible for the bombing. She shows the reader an incredible world, a London that is not quite real, in a time that is not quite our own. And as deeply enmeshed as the reader becomes in her reality, a tiny, persistent doubt begins to creep in about just what is reality and what is a manifestation of her griefstricken and distraught imagination. Dear Osama they want you dead or alive so the terror will stop. Well I wouldn't know about that I mean rock 'n' roll didn't stop when Elvis died on the khazi it just got worse. Next thing you know there was Sonny & Cher and Dexy's Midnight Runners. I'll come to them later. My point is it's easier to start these things than to finish them. I suppose you thought of that did you? There's a reward of 25 million dollars on your head but don't lose sleep on my account Osama. I have no information leading to your arrest or capture. I have no information full effing stop. I'm what you'd call an infidel and my husband called working class. There is a difference you know. But just supposing I did clap eyes on you. Supposing I saw you driving a Nissan Primera down towards Shoreditch and grassed you to the old bill. Well. I wouldn't know how to spend 25 million dollars. It's not as if I've got anyone to spend it on since you blew up my husband and my boy. --excerpt from Indendiary From the Hardcover edition.
Get the book
Other editions
Similar books
-
Incendiary
By Chris CleaveThe extraordinary first novel from the author of THE OTHER HAND
-
Incendiary
By Zoraida CórdovaSet in a lushly drawn world inspired by Inquisition Spain, Zoraida Córdova's fantasy is an epic tale of love and revenge perfect for fans of Sabaa Tahir and Sarah J. Maas.
-
Incendiary: A Novel (Book Club Readers Edition)
By Chris Cleave—Ready? said my husband. —Ready. —Contact! said my husband. My husband put the CD in. He pressed PLAY and we ran into the kitchen. We held hands and crouched on the floor. It was scary. It was like an earthquake the way the plates ...
-
Incendiary: The Psychiatrist, the Mad Bomber, and the Invention of Criminal Profiling
By Michael Cannell... Brooklyn 10:50 a.m.: Samuel J. Tilden High School, Brooklyn 11:05 a.m.: Brooklyn Army Terminal 11:39 a.m.: IRT subway station, 34th and 7th Ave 11:40 a.m.: Office building, 853 Broadway 12:18 p.m.: West Side Airlines Terminal, ...
-
The Incendiaries: A Novel
By R. O. KwonHaunting and intense, The Incendiaries is a fractured love story that explores what can befall those who lose what they love most.
-
Incendiary Art: Poems
By Patricia SmithWinner, 2017 Los Angeles Times Book Prize Finalist, 2018 Pulitzer Prize for Poetry Winner, NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Literary Work in the Poetry category Winner, 2018 Kingsley Tufts Poetry Award Winner, 2018 BCALA Best Poetry Award ...
-
Incendiary: The Premonition Series
By Amy A. BartolCold, fine drops of rain fall softly on my cheeks as I emerge from the darkness of the ship's interior to the gray, overcast sky of the main deck.
-
INCENDIARY DEVICES: Investigation and Analysis
By Ed NordskogThe author is a internationally known expert on arson, arsonists, and serial arson investigations. The book is designed to be a reference guide for arson and serial arson investigators and arson profilers.
-
The Incendiary: The Misadventures Of John The Painter, First Modern Terrorist
By Jessica WarnerOrville T. Murphy, “The View from Versailles. Charles Gravier Comte de Vergennes's Perceptions of the American Revolution,” in Diplomacy and Revolution. The FrancoAmerican Alliance of 1778, ed. Ronald Hoffman and Peter J. Albert ...
-
Flame On: U.S. Incendiary Weapons, 1918-1945
By John W. MountcastleA concise history of the development and use of incendiary weapons--flamethrowers, incendiary bombs, napalm, and more--by the American military in the twentieth century, with a focus on World War II.