- Hardcover: 432 pages
- Publisher: Little, Brown & Company (30 April 2009)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0316724831
- ISBN-13: 978-0316724838
- Product Dimensions: 23.6 x 15.2 x 4 cm
- Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars See all reviews (23 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 259,134 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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Product Description
Review
'This is a novel written with passion and moral outrage. It is a vivid portrait of a city that is at once familiar and disconcertingly strange' --THE TIMES Joan Smith
Review
'She is a humane writer as well a waspish one and it is the plight of London's migrant workers and sink-school pupils with which she is primarily concerned here, and her passion and care are affecting'
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
12 of 12 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase
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.
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.
8 of 8 people found the following review helpful
Format: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.
7 of 7 people found the following review helpful
Format: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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Most Recent Customer Reviews
Painfully steroetyped/mouthpieced characters mar an okay plot
In some ways it pains me to write this, because I do admire Amanda Craig for trying to write a 'state of the nation' novel; for trying to get under the skin of the hugely complex... Read more
Published 3 days ago by Snowcode
Bad
A very bad boring. Slow moving book. I would not recommend to anything. I enjoyed my art of baking far more than this un readable book.
Published 10 months ago by Nick
A NOVEL WITH A HEART
I loved this book. Every character lived in my imagination and I followed them along every street. But much more than that, it made me think how I would act in many of the... Read more
Published 22 months ago by Anne Sebba
A page-turner but patronising
This is certainly an enjoyable book but I don't think it merits the five stars that it seems to be gathering. Read more
Published on 29 Mar 2010 by Tamara L
It touches your heart and mind!
Hearts and Minds is a great title, intriguing and promising, and the book more than lives up to expectations. Read more
Published on 1 Mar 2010 by Inger Loevschall
A lasting impact
Some books are instantly forgettable but not Hearts and Minds by Amanda Craig. It touched me profoundly. Read more
Published on 15 Feb 2010 by Lancashire Lass
Just so true
Hearts and minds depicts such a true picture of the life in London. I was attracted to it because it mentioned an illegai immigrant. Read more
Published on 22 Dec 2009 by Felistas Besa
Admirable, riveting but some immigrant characters lack depth
I bought this book because of its immigrant theme but I was soon engrossed in the riveting story in which the lives of people from different countries connect so skilfully with... Read more
Published on 11 Jun 2009 by Parvati P.
Fabulous
A fabulous book about London as it is now in all its viciousness and grace. Hearts and Minds is ambitious, energetic, wide ranging, honest yet fused with an optimism which lifted... Read more
Published on 11 Jun 2009 by sally
Our present moment
Amanda Craig has written a novel that is both topical and timeless; reading it was like seeing the headlines that you skim in the paper come to vivid, heart-beating life. Read more
Published on 11 Jun 2009 by TemmaD
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