GOLD
I’ve finished my third novel, GOLD. It’s a story about the limits of friendship and the extremes of human endurance, both physical and emotional.
I am with the same publishers everywhere – there are no finer. Publication is June in the UK (Sceptre) and Canada (Doubleday), and July in the USA (Simon & Schuster).
Publication dates in Australia, India, Germany, Holland, Brazil and elsewhere will be announced soon, I hope.
I will have plenty to say about the book in the coming months. I will publish excerpted chapters and behind-the-scenes material from the research which as ever has been a huge part of my work. If you’d like to get hold of all that, probably the best thing is to follow me on Twitter @chriscleave, or of course to keep checking back here.
For now, though, what I want most of all is to thank my readers for their kindness and patience in the three years since my last novel was published. Your thousands of intelligent and insightful comments on this site are the measure of your passion for fiction. Your own sometimes very moving stories speak of your positive engagement with the eternally vexing questions of our world. If it wasn’t for you, there are many times when I would have given up.
Please never underestimate the difference it makes to a writer’s work when you drop him or her a line. I found that the way you talked about my last book gave me license to push myself even harder with the next one.
You showed me that it is okay to write serious books without stowing my sense of humour, and that it is alright to cross emotional boundaries by inhabiting characters that I have no natural right to inhabit.
You showed me that there are intelligent, warm blooded, curious readers out there who I can write up to.
You showed me that it isn’t crazy to go out on these quite extreme research forays and return to write the kind of fiction I care about: stories of ordinary people doing extraordinary things in the world we actually live in.
Thank you for caring about those kinds of stories. Thank you for finding reality more interesting than reality television.
I hope I have deserved your patience these last three years. I’m sorry it’s taken so long but I honestly could not have worked harder. I toured the last novel around the world for a year and had the pleasure of meeting many thousands of readers. Next I did several months’ research, then locked myself in and wrote six drafts of the book with the unfailing support of my agents, my publishers, my family and my friends.
The work was so intense that I put life on hold. I stopped answering post and email. I grew a beard, images of which must never find their way onto the internet. I was so distracted that I once forgot I had moved house, and didn’t work it out until I was standing on our old doorstep with my key failing to turn the lock. I worked so hard that I can hardly remember the last year, but I am very proud of the new novel and if you enjoy it, then everything will have been for the good.
GOLD is available now to pre-order. If you do, then thank you very much. I’d like to point out that your local independent bookseller will be able to take an advance order just as well as some of the larger outfits. (Find your local indie here: USA & Canada / UK / Australia).
Once again, thank you for being my reason to keep going. I wish you all kinds of happiness.
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Read Little Bee this Sunday. Bought book at Indie book store in Putnam, CT USA. Had to walk away from book in first couple chapters same as with Kite Runner. I can cope with adults in trouble but children are another matter. I stayed with the book. Loved it–all of it. The 4 year oldsIknow act and think like Batman. Amazing truths you tell. Will find your other books. Thank you. Keep writing.
Hi Barbara – thank you so much. I’m delighted you liked the book and I hope you’ll enjoy the new one just as much.
Hi Chris,
This is wonderful news. I can’t wait to read it!
best
Dave
Thanks very much, Dave! Will send you a proof as soon as they’re ready. If you like it, let’s do a special edition…
Hello
I´m from Brazil. I loved the little Bee´s history. It´s very beautiful!
Whrite about brazilian´s children too. You will love.
Angelina
I am excited to read Gold. Just finished Little Bee. What a beautiful creation. Little bee now lives in me. In my own suburb, doing things as small as making coffee in my coffee maker, I hear myself saying, “This is a good trick”. You are an amazing talent fine tuned into the largest dangers of our time but able to find them in the smallest details of the days. And to you Chris, This IS a good trick. I wish you much luck and success, but mostly happiness.
So very happy to hear about Gold.
I put up an article on our website tonight about The Other Hand http://tinyurl.com/4xuku3o I hope it will encourage many others to share the intense enjoyment your book bestowed upon me.
Thank you for enriching my reading Chris
Keep up the good work, even if it means turning up at the wrong home once in a while. http://tinyurl.com/muhoby
Yay, I’ve been looking out for news of your next book and am delighted to read that you’ve finished it. Well done! Thanks for working so hard on it – I hope you get a bit of a break now, eh? I’m already confident that I’m going to fall in love with ‘Gold’ as I have with your other books. Thanks also for your kind words to us (your readers) – that’s very generous.
I am very excited for this next novel. I have read Little Bee more times than I can count and often find myself reflecting upon it, and always recommending it to my friends and family. I loved all of the characters and the play within the different female perspectives. I will definitely be picking it up on the day that it comes out, because I am sure that it will make me think as much as Little Bee and Incendiary have! Thanks for your work.
I am extremely happy that there will be a new book by your hand. The other two novels were brilliant, and I love the sense of humour & (complex) simplicity of your characters. Could you perhaps tell me when the book will be available (in English ofcourse, I don’t mean the translation) in Holland?
Chris,
Good for you for taking on the Spandau Ballet story. New Wave New Romanticism has been neglected by literature for too long.
Seriously – congratulations.
Richard
Hey there!
I just finished reading the dutch version of Incendiary. I had to read it for a school purpose but I can tell you that I liked it very very much!
It was the first book i’ve finished since the Harry Potter series and you’ve made me into reading again.
I immediatly bought Little Bee but have yet to read it.
I’m happy your new book is finished! Now go on a well deserved vacation!
Greets from Belgium
I’m very glad to read, that there is a new book of you!
I’m looking forward to buying it. Hope it will be translated soon in Dutch!
Love your way books!
Dear Chris,
I stumbled upon Little Bee in an airport book store – as soon as it was published and the book moved me so deeply- left me sleepless, feverish and desperately angry. Since then I am a relentless fan, urging all my friends who love reading as much as me that they need to absolutely read the book. Unfortunately being a single mom – looking after [and with the greatest plesaure and greatest privilege] my 14 year old, walking our dog and of course, working has not allowed me to get hold of your other books, the other factor being ‘based temporarily’ in the Netherlands, where English versions of the latest are a rarity. Do keep writing -
Dear Chris
I am doing nanowrimo (or rather, am trying to do it) and received the message you wrote to all of us foolish writers. Thanks for it; it really helped me keep going. I also was delighted to see who you were, as in the Chris Cleave who has written some of my favourite novels. I am so glad you have written a new one; hopefully it’ll appear on the bookshelves in Cape Town soon. And perhaps you will appear here too?
Best wishes
Nella
Hi Chris, Great news, look forward to reading Gold. Both earlier books were absolutely brilliant. Best Wishes Jaeza
About time and all. I have been waiting so long for this… Can’t wait. Thanks Chris!
Chris,
Your writing has been unbelievably inspirational and has encouraged me to begin writing my own novel. I am eagerly waiting the release of your newest book – I have thoroughly enjoyed each of your previous ones.
Hi Alexander – thank you for this very kind message. I’m delighted that you’re now writing too! All good wishes for your work.
I REALLY CAN NOT WAIT, for GOLD!
THERE ARE TREASURES IN LIFE, I’ve learned that (again), thanks.
İ just finished the incendiary today! it was amazing last year i read “the little bee” too and i both cried at the end of these 2 books. Can’t wait to buy your 3rd book i hope that it was as good as the other ones! God bless your hands and give the energy for non-stop writing. Thanks for the big pleasure of reading novels like this!
Greetings Chris!
We have alerted Cambridge, Minnesota of your upcoming novel “Gold” and all send you our best! We can’t wait to read your new book.
Congratulations!
Judith Kissner
Scout & Morgan Books
Cambridge, Minnesota
Received news this week that the grant I wrote for MORE Little Bees for my classroom has been funded! Woot! And now we have Gold to look forward to?! Fabulous way to start the new year, I must say. Only one thing would make it even more amazing: autographed photo of you for our classroom wall. Just sayin’. Keep on writing, CC. You rock.
Hi Cecilia – I’m very grateful to you for your kind words and for teaching my book in your classroom! Thank you. Where would I send photo / goodies?
Chris,
I picked up Little Bee as an after thought in an airport book stand. I saw a picture of you on the back cover, and thought to myself, how exactly can a man narrate a woman, much less one that is from a very different race and nationality – but the cover was pretty, and there were endorsements stamped all over, so I thought at worst it couldn’t be too bad. I couldn’t have been more mistaken. I’ve just emerged from your book – it was one of the most beautiful and moving stories I’ve ever had the pleasure of immersing myself in – and in addition raised my level of awareness. Thank you.
Late to the game,
Ivana
I’m an independent bookseller in Tampa and I just finished Gold. It’s only January, and I’m pretty certain I’ve found my favorite book this year! Really well done. It’s brilliant and beautiful, and has also got me really looking forward to London 2012 cycling! Thanks very much for the words!
Hi Mandy – thank you very much! I’m delighted you like GOLD.
Hello Ivana – thank you very much – that means a great deal to me!
Hi Chris,
Little Bee found its way to me via the St. Croix Animal Shelter Flea Market here in the US Virgin Islands. I read it in two days because I couldn’t put it down. Little Bee, Sarah and Batman are going to stay with me for a long while. Thank you for bringing to life such a beautiful story. I look forward to reading Gold and the many other stories waiting patiently inside you.
Hi Chris,
Just finished reading the proof of Gold – and am proud to say i will be sponsoring your book within our Waterstones Birmingham branch. Really enjoyed the novel – you never seem to let the literary world down. The Other Hand is my all time favourite book – i couldn’t recommend it enough. Hope to see you do a signing in our store soon – i will definitely be promoting the book with the critical acclaim it deserves!