Everyone Brave is Forgiven by Chris Cleave will be featured on the Radio 2 Book Club on Monday 25 April.
The book was selected with the help of a panel made up of Reading Agency and library staff from across the UK.
We have an exclusive extract available for you to read, as well as a discussion guide for your reading group.
You can WIN 10 copies of Everyone Brave is Forgiven for your reading group when you visit our Noticeboard!
Everyone Brave is Forgiven
Mary North – young, resourceful, fiercely intelligent, and a newly recruited teacher – resolves to stay in London at the outbreak of the Second World War. For although the city’s children are evacuated in a carefully orchestrated and very public act, a number of the have been returned, quickly and quietly, because the countryside ‘doesn’t want them’. What good is it to teach a child to count, Mary wonders, if you do not show him that he counts for something?
Moving from Blitz-torn London to the siege of Malta, this is a story of passion, loss, prejudice and incredible courage.
Selection panel review
Our library reading panel loved Everyone Brave is Forgiven – here are some of their comments:
“This novel is a brilliant depiction of life during the London Blitz and the Siege of Malta, The author’s erudite exploration of the lives of Londoners at war brings together a cast of charismatic characters spanning all walks of life. I strongly recommend this book to anyone who loves beautiful writing and touching stories.”
“I thought it was well-written, the author really caring about his characters and their stories, and basing them on serious and perceptive research. I found myself wanting to see what would happen, especially for Mary – and I wished I could have talked more with my parents about the war. Reading this made me think that probably they would have felt and experienced similar things.”
“Beautifully written wartime epic following the lives of 4 main characters. Exploring love, loss, prejudice and survival. Worth the read.”
About the author
Chris Cleave’s debut novel Incendiary won the Somerset Maugham Award, among others. His second, the Costa-shortlisted The Other Hand, was a global bestseller. Both books were shortlisted for the Commonwealth Writers’ Prizes. Gold was published in 2012 to further critical acclaim.
A word from Chris
“Something I love about novels is that no two readers ever see the same character. A reader brings a unique and hard-won life experience, finding something in a book that no one else will – including the author. So a novel is just the starting point of an enjoyable experiment: the conversation between its readers. Reading groups are the home of this talk: they are warm, funny and deeply serious places where the real business of books gets done.
There isn’t a bigger or a bigger hearted book club than Radio 2’s, and I’m honoured that they’ve picked my new novel, Everyone Brave is Forgiven. It’s a story about people fighting – emotionally, physically and psychologically – to survive the Second World War. That makes it the story of each of us, because we’re all the result of family lines that somehow made it through that global cataclysm. So your family story is what you will bring to the book and to the book club. We are a society built against impossible odds – and our true stories are sometimes so improbable that if I put them into a novel, people would say they were unrealistic. The more research I did, the more I understood that the world’s tragedy was full of miracles too.
I’m very grateful to The Reading Agency and to all the librarians who supported Everyone Brave as a Radio 2 Book Club pick. I and all writers owe an endless debt to the work that librarians do in connecting books with readers. They are the best custodians of books and they are the ones most to blame for those amazing conversations between readers.
If you connect with the Radio 2 Book club or if your own reading group picks Everyone Brave is Forgiven, I promise there’s enough fuel in it to launch an enriching conversation about your families, our values, and what it means to be brave in war or in love. What your conversations will be like, I can’t predict. What I will say is a sincere thank you for reading my work. As with all my books you will find much background material on my website at chriscleave.com, and I will always be glad to talk on Twitter @chriscleave. Thank you."
Get involved
Tune in to Simon Mayo’s Drivetime show on Monday 25 April to hear a live interview with Chris Cleave talking about his book.
WIN 10 copies of Everyone Brave is Forgiven for your reading group when you visit our Noticeboard!
Have you read Everyone Brave is Forgiven, or any other books by Chris Cleave? You can share your thoughts with us on Twitter using #EveryoneBrave, post a review, or add it to your group’s reading list. You can also follow author Chris Cleave on Twitter.
Want to find out more? Take a look at the Radio 2 Book Club Twitter feed or find out more on the Radio 2 Book Club website.
