12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A Deeply Affective Book, 7 May 2009
This review is from: Hearts and Minds (Hardcover)
This is Amanda Craig's(who is also an Amazon Top 100
reviewer)sixth novel,and her most accomplished and
adventurous to date.Set in London,it is part thriller,
part social commentary,and begins with a female body
being dumped into a pond on Hampstead Heath.
The dead woman is an illegal immigrant,and the novel
criss-crosses between the often harrowing experiences
of 5 immigrants .London is portrayed as not coming to
terms with multi-culturalism,whilst many of it's institutions
are in a state of decay.Meanwhile many of the 'chattering'
class are self-obsessed and selfish. This is a deeply affective,
moral and compassionate book that makes one ponder what we
owe other people and the benefits of human kindness.
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8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
page-turner with a heart - and a brain, 12 May 2009
This review is from: Hearts and Minds (Hardcover)
Hearts and Minds begins with a murder, and around this central mystery Amanda Craig has woven a riveting novel about five very different characters whose lives intersect in all sorts of interesting and unexpected ways. It's as gripping as the best crime novels, but it's much more than that - it's about big themes: what makes us human, what divides us, and what can drive ordinary people to acts of great cruelty or great courage. The setting is a thoroughly contemporary London, described in all its beauty and squalor, in which trafficked sex-slaves and asylum seekers endure a hellish existence alongside the largely oblivious middle-classes, whose comforts are sometimes bought at the expense of an invisible underclass. The satire is well-aimed, sharp and often very funny without being spiteful, and the plot developments come thick and fast as the strands are drawn together in a dramatic denouement. Although at times the portrait of urban life is very dark, the novel's good samaritans shine brightly and it is they who are given the last word. Highly recommended.
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7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Wise and entertaining, 11 May 2009
This review is from: Hearts and Minds (Hardcover)
I admired this book enormously - for its wisdom and humanity first and foremost, but also for the power and grace of Amanda Craig's storytelling. Through an adept orchestration of a wide cast of diverse characters - prostitutes, magazine writers, immigrant taxi-drivers and fundamentalist teenagers - Craig's protrayal of Britain today is as subtle and complex as the problems it faces. I didn't really want the novel to end - but when it did, I felt wiser. But sadder too, because although there are many comic moments, Craig's depiction of London, warts and all, is depressingly accurate.
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