Incendiary

Somerset Maugham Awards, 2006

Paperback / ISBN-13: 9780340998489

Price: £9.99

Disclosure: If you buy products using the retailer buttons above, we may earn a commission from the retailers you visit.

You aren’t stupid.
You know there’s no such thing as a perfect mother.
Plenty of other books will tell you there is, but this one won’t lie to you.

I was weak and I cheated and I was punished, but my god I loved my child through all of it.
Love means you never break, and it means you’re stronger than the things they do to you. I know this is true because I have been through fire, and I am the proof that love survives.

I am not a perfect mother but I will tell you the perfect truth, because this is you and me talking.
This is my story.

Reviews

Stunning... a haunting work of art.
<i>Newsweek</i>
Chris Cleave has the ability to create moving and beautiful scenes within a terrifying backdrop. I couldn't put it down; it's subversive, thought-provoking and well-written.
<i>Observer</i>, Books of the Year
Richly sardonic and often disarmingly poignant... How can one fail to be impressed and moved?
<i>Guardian</i>
Cleave's heroine is by turns funny, sad, flawed, sympathetic, both damaged and indomitable, and triumphantly convincing.
<i>Sunday Telegraph</i>
Stunning
<i>New York Times</i> AND <i>International Herald Tribune</i> AND <i>Bookmarks Magazine</i>
This is a compulsive read, sure to stir the dust
<i>CITY AM</i>
Searing.. poignant and compelling.. Utterly believable and mesmerizing
<i>Newsday</i>
Dark, tense and undeniably provocative
<i>Metro</i>
Hilariously sympathetic and convincing
<i>San Francisco Chronicle</i>
Mesmerizing
<i>Washington Post</i>