The story behind 'Incendiary'
I wrote a book that Newsweek called “arguably the strangest epistolary novel ever written.” The novel itself is eerie enough, and the grotesque coincidence of its publication made it even stranger.
I drafted Incendiary during six insomniac weeks in the spring of 2004, when my first child was six months old and I looked with horror at the world he was growing up into. This was the time of the train bombings in Madrid, and the snickering torturers at the Abu Ghraib prison. The airwaves were filled with body counts and brutish ideologies, and I needed to write something to remind myself of the simple human cost of this folly. And I think I wanted my son, when he was older, to understand something of the febrile nature of the times he was born into.
I wrote about a terrorist bomb in London, because London is my city, and I wrote about the death of a child, because we all love our children. But when it was finished I suspected that Incendiary was too provocative, too vernacular, too sexually charged, and just too downright weird to be published.
In fact, against the odds and thanks to the courage of a number of journalists and readers who have been unswerving in their support, Incendiary has become an international bestseller. It is published in 20 countries. I get email in languages I can’t even identify. People seem to like the book, and yet it has proved strangely divisive. The Telegraph called it “triumphantly convincing” while the Observer damned it as “an insult.” The Washington Post hailed it as “a mesmerizing tour de force” but the New York Times found it “a simple case of tastelessness.” (Three days later, the New York Times called the novel “stunning in its portrayal of a city living with terror”).
For me Incendiary is none of those things. It’s a story about a woman who loses her son, with all the simple sadness you would expect.
I tried to make my heroine funny and generous, because I believe people generally are. I tried to make her clever, because I thought she needed to be in order to cut through the mire of political correctness and tell her story with insight. I got her to write her story as a plea against violence, directly to Osama bin Laden, because for a mother who had lost her son I did not see what could be more natural.
I’m told the excitement around the publication of Incendiary was unusual for a first novel. It was certainly exciting for me. For a week beginning on July 1st, 2005, advertisements were taken out in magazines, reviews appeared in newspapers around the world, and hundreds of posters went up on the London Underground featuring the smoking London skyline and the headline: “WHAT IF?” (I cringe to remember it. My god – really – what were we thinking?) Time Out proclaimed “Incendiary could well be this summer’s Piz Buin-spattered bestseller.”
At the launch party, on the evening of 6th July 2005, all my friends showed up. I got to bed at 4.00 am on the morning of the 7th. At 8.00 am I walked my son to his nursery, and at 8.50 am three suicide bombers detonated their devices in the London Underground. One hour later the fourth bomber hit the bus in Tavistock Square. More than fifty people died.
So, on my novel’s publication day something fearful happened in my city, something that suddenly made fiction unimportant. Regarding the attacks I can say nothing that the families of the victims haven’t already said – much more eloquently and poignantly than I ever could – because it is their story. Reality is a place where writers of fiction have no right to go, and the dead were real people.
What use is there in fiction in times like these? In the days after 7th July 2005, as the posters for Incendiary were hastily pulled down, the advertisements cancelled, my book tour shelved, and the novel temporarily withdrawn from sale by many UK retailers, I didn’t have an answer.
Well, now the book is back and so am I. I started writing again, after a few rather dark months when I swore off the habit. I have a new novel coming out this summer. I have found a simple and personal answer to my “what is the use?” question and it is this: I love fiction. I love writing, because it helps me think. And I love reading, because it lets me see how other people think. I believe that the good-humoured and effortful struggle to understand one another’s lives is at worst a good way to pass long journeys, and at best an antidote to violence.
Incidentally, I don’t hold out any such grand claims for Incendiary. I guess it will do very little one way or the other for world peace. As for the questions I’m always asked – do I think Osama will read it? And do I think it will change his mind? – my answers are, sadly, no and no. Instead I’m simply proud of Incendiary because I think my heroine is riotous and unforgettable, and if you read it I hope you’ll like her too.
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This has to be one of my all time favourite novels. I can understand the horrifying realization of how the book became prophetic for you. The heroine was completely human. I was desperate to just hold her all the way through. Superb! Congratulations!
I read “Little bee,” then searched for every book you had written.What can I say…Incendiary was such a good read.Just superb!Thank you.
After I read “Little Bee,” I had to read “Incendiary.” I told everyone I knew to read “Little Bee” but “Incendiary” was so intense and disturbing I didn’t know what to do but finish it. Having lived outside of Manhattan on 9/11, it was very understandable that this could happen but perhaps so painful to understand how quickly it could happen. Both books were similar in that feeling but written so differently. I can’t wait to see what you write next!!! Thank you Chris!
I, too, had to read “Incendiary” after I read “Little Bee”. In both you portray women of indomitable strength and optimism even when confronted with painful “bad Luck” of birth and circumstance.
Especially after finishing “Incendiary”, just about one hour ago on a rainy gray day, I feel so angry that the world is not an even playing field for all it’s people. Some people get all the breaks and are dealt a better hand in life. And I have been one of the lucky ones…..
Are you a deeply pessimistic person, Chris?
I feel so sad. I just realized, then checked the book, we never know what “Mummy’s” name is. Oh, wow……. it took so little for “Mummy” to be joyful and full of life.
Are you a deeply pessimistic person, Chris?
Thank you for writing your sad, poignant tales.
Samantha
I have a 10 month old son who has changed my view of the world . . so much so that rather than enjoying Incendiary as a statement of our times etc etc, I cried all the way through. I think your writing must have hit a nerve. I’m off to buy the book now
)
I couldn’t stop reading and if I had not “life” to get on with (and my own 4 year old son to look after) I would have finished it within the day. I didn’t know whether to laugh or cry and admittedly I did both.
A very very clever book and I thank you for it.
Just finished Incendiary on the train to work after just a few days of not being able to put it down. Amazing. It has made me cry more than once, and not just because I have a husband and a son. It brings a tear to my eye to think about it, even sat at my desk at work, and I actually don’t think a book has affected me as much in a long long time. I’ve also read The Other Hand, which I loved almost as much as this one, and very much look forward to any future novels.
I finished this in 5 days, and I’m the sort of reader who takes months! This is a masterful, skillfully controlled piece of work which feels so plausible, and is terrifying and touching at the same time, with brilliant satirical references to popular culture.(SPOILERS warning) The curfew and riots sound like something that would actually happen in london gone mad in the war on terrorism. The portrayal of grief and anger of the protagonist is heartbreaking in her irrationality. I was nearly in tears during her stay in hospital which I have not felt about a book for a long time. The most poignant thing for me is that she sees the boy in her kitchen, chatting away and pretends to tuck him in, when of course he isn’t there. You do grow to like her for all her faults, and I think it is good that peoples’ appearances are left largely for us to picture. If that was your first book you will be a powerhouse in years to come!
Just like the above i finished this book in 24 hrs,despite normally taking months .It just gripped me from the very first page.Living in London,and having a 5 yr old it all seemed so real,the streets and people familiar that it left me sharing in the anxiety of the novels main characters.A really convincing portrayal of a city in a state of paranoia and on the edge of hysteria.
This is the saddest story I have ever read, so wonderfully and cleverly written. I just finished the book and it left me with all feelings I cant describe, there is such a big lump of sadness in my heart. I thought one must be heartless if not moved by this. Thank you!
by pure chance i purchased the other hand and finished it in just a few days. absolutely enjoyed it from start to finish. it did leave me feeling a sadness that such things can and are happening today is some countries. I am going to buy Incendiary, have not seen the film nor had i heard of it. I look forward to your next publication. Thank you!
Hi Chris, I have now read both The Other Hand and Incendiary. I read The Other Hand first and was very moved by the story – it is thought provoking and sad and I felt on finishing it that the story would stay with me. I then immediately looked to see what else you had written. Yesterday I read Incendiary and literally could not put it down – I read it in 7 hours straight! I, like some others on here have never been to leave a comment on an Author’s page before – in all my 59 years of reading. Reading Incendiary made me think about our attitudes to terrorism and how we try to combat it. It seems to me that your book works on several levels: one level the simple loss of a son and husband and the effect it has on the one left behind, but the other level is more complex – the way our society reacts to terror. I truly believe that we will never combat this terror until we start to talk to and understand those who perpetrate it and your book confirmed that feeling very strongly. It was a brilliant idea Chris, to make the whole story a letter to Osama. This book will stay with me for a long time – thank you for writing it.
I just finished reading Little Bee and I think it should be required reading in schools. This book broke my heart and I will always look at my own country (Canada) and it’s attitute toward refugees very differently now.
I selected this book by chance while looking for something to read during a weekend road trip. I read the summary and it immediately caught my attention because I work on immigration issues. This book made me realize why I started down this road in the first place. From the very first page, it draws you in and you cannot escape. It is incredibly well-written and thought out. Every page in the book is life at its finest and its worst. It makes us remember why we choose the lives we lead – very powerful. I will never forget it.
I loved “The Other Hand” and “Incendiary”, which I have just spent two days reading back to back. I always feel the urge to write a novel, and then I read work like this, and know I could never even begin to develop such an “inner voice”, that is so funny and poignant at the same time. I can’t wait for your next offering. I also agree with Catherine (above), “The Other Hand” should be required reading, particularly as a foil to inflammatory journalism. Little Bee broke my heart.
I read Little Bee a couple weeks ago, and am about 30pgs from finishing Incendiary. I was in a bookstore tonite thinking about how could I choose a book that will in any way touch me as these two have. I both characters deeply. I laugh with them and cry with them. I want more, and am waiting for you next book. If you read this, and can recommend a book that you love, that would be great. Thank you. Bobbi
Just to let you know that not all of your fans are women, Chris. Incendiary has been hiding on my bookshelf for ages and I just picked it up the other day. I finished it last night and I’m still in a stunned state. An incredibly powerful piece of writing. Congratulations.
My friend shared “Little Bee” with me. I’ve never responded to an author before but I just had to today. I just finished it today and I can’t stop thinking about how some people are cruely vunerable. They don’t choose where they are born. Why? It’s a question I ponder on. Why was I born in the US and not in Nigeria or Angola or in Mexico or the slums of any city?
Thank you for waking us all up. I’ll be reading “Incendiary” next. I look forward to it.
I am half way through Incendiary and find it fascinating so far apart from two things. I hate the way the narrator says “of” instead of “have” although I recognise the reasoning behind it. It stops me reading smoothly and jars.
The second thing is (to any football fan) a massive error. No 3 p.m. kickoff league games on a Saturday are shown live on TV. The Football Assocation will not allow it. Live games can be shown with 1.30 and/or 5.30 kickoffs but not 3 p.m. This has never been allowed because it has always been thought that attendance at games would be affected and the clubs would lose financially. As the fact that the main character’s husband and son are attending Arsenal v Chelsea at the Emirates for the last league game of the season and she is watching the game at home is pretty central to the story this grated on me. I am only half way through so maybe this fact is to be addressed before the end of the book; if so I apologise.
Christine Bond
Like others, I picked The Other Hand off the library shelf by chance as it was the nearest book to hand whilst chasing by 2 year old round the shelves! It was such an incredibly powerful and disturbing read I knew I had to find Incendiary. I think this surpasses The Other Hand but only perhaps because, being British, and living near London, it is closer to home. I was so gripped by the voice of your heroine and the tale she told, I would spend much of each day following an evening’s read just bringing it all back to life in my head and trying to really feel the tragedy, horror, and sadness of the situation. The images you portray are so vivid and ‘real’ – just longing now for your next novel…..Thanks.
Am I the only person who was hugely upset that every HAVE is the story had been replaced by OF!! Honestly people, it made my reading unpleasant. What happened to proof reading!! Got a good mind to demand my £7.99 from WHS
Thanks K – sorry you didn’t like the book. If you send me your details c/o my publisher, I’ll refund your money myself.
Thank you, Chris Cleave. Have read Little Bee and just now finished Incendiary. You are a wonderful storyteller. The characters and images you portray have lodged themselves in my mind. I look forward to your next work. Again, thank you. Suz
I love to read good books, with words and ideas that grab my heart and mind. “Little Bee” did that from beginning to end. Your use of metaphors helped make understandings crystal clear for big and little stuff. While I was completely engaged in the story I was also aware of the great writing. I am not a writer, but I enjoy reading and thinking. Reading your book helped me think about the process of writing a story. How the heck does it develop? I am fascinated.
I just finished reading Little Bee. I just had to send you a simple message. Well done. My mother was a writer and after she died I had a chance to read all her rejection slips. She not only wrote but taught creative writing in an adult education setting. I know she always appreciated hearing feedback from those who read her books and so as the son of a writer I felt compelled to let you know that I thought your book was wonderful. I will look for your first book and will be glad to see you publish again soon.
Thank you;
Carl Schellenberg
Los Gatos California, usa