Little Bee

Chris Cleave

………

SIMON & SCHUSTER, 2009

(available in paperback from Simon & Schuster, 2010)

AFTER SARAH O’ROURKE, a high-powered magazine editor, has an affair with Lawrence, a man she is interviewing for a story, she and her increasingly depressed husband, Andrew, seek to repair their marriage with a beach vacation to Nigeria. While walking on the beach one morning Sarah and Andrew see two young women—Little Bee and her sister—running toward them, pursued by armed men. Sarah and Little Bee’s lives become entwined that day on the beach, and what transpires becomes the pivotal moment in Chris Cleave’s novel.

The O’Rourkes return to London, but they are unsure of the fate of the girls. Haunted by the events in Nigeria, Andrew commits suicide two years later. On the day of his funeral, Little Bee, who has fled Nigeria and spent the past two years in Britain in an immigration detention facility, presents herself to Sarah. Little Bee lives with Sarah and helps Sarah care for her four-year-old son, Charlie, while Sarah helps Little Bee attain British citizenship, although Lawrence, with whom she has resumed a relationship, disapproves. The tension between Lawrence and Little Bee builds, with Lawrence threatening to turn Little Bee in to the authorities. At an outing to a park with Sarah, Lawrence, and Little Bee, Charlie disappears briefly. What happens in the ensuing search brings the novel to a dramatic close.

POST-COLONIAL PIE

Clémence Cleave-Doyard, Chris Cleave’s wife and also a chef, created a recipe combining Nigerian and Western ingredients and flavors to celebrate the relationship between Little Bee and Sarah. The result is a delicious and unusual medley—the marriage of traditional British fish pie with yams, pepper, and chile, the flavors of Nigeria.

Cleave-Doyard’s recipe originally appeared in our cookbook Table of Contents: From Breakfast with Anita Diamant to Dessert with James Patterson—a Generous Helping of Recipes, Writings, and Insights from Today’s Bestselling Authors (Adams, 2010).

NOTE: Wear plastic or rubber gloves while handling chiles to protect your skin from the oil in them. Avoid direct contact with your eyes and wash your hands thoroughly after handling.

3 cups milk

1 small onion, quartered

1 carrot, roughly chopped

1 celery stalk, roughly chopped in 4-inch chunks

1 bay leaf

1 bunch parsley

10 peppercorns

1image pounds tilapia fillet (or other firm white fish such as cod or haddock)

image pound smoked undyed haddock or cod fillet (if unable to find the smoked fish, you may use skinned salmon steak)

1 large yam, approximately 2 pounds

Pinch of salt

11 tablespoons butter, divided, plus extra for buttering dish and topping

Freshly ground black pepper to taste

½ cup all-purpose flour

1 fresh red or jalapeño chile pepper, finely chopped (see note)

  1. In a large shallow saucepan combine the milk, onion, carrot, celery, bay leaf, a few parsley sprigs, and the peppercorns.

  2. Place the pan over low heat and add both types of fish fillets. When the milk begins to simmer, turn off the heat and leave the fish to poach gently for 2 minutes. With a slotted spoon, remove the fish from the milk. Strain the fish milk, saving the milk for the béchamel sauce. Discard the vegetables and herbs.

  3. Peel the yam and cut it into even, small chunks. Place in a large pot, cover with water, add a pinch of salt, and bring to a boil. Once boiling, cook for roughly 10 minutes, until tender. Drain the water. Return yams to the pan and mash, adding 5½ tablespoons butter in cubes and pouring in a bit of the strained fish milk in order to get a nice textured mash. Season generously with freshly ground pepper to taste. Set the mash aside.

  4. Preheat the oven to 400°F. Make the béchamel sauce: In a large saucepan over medium heat, melt the remaining 5½ tablespoons butter. Add the flour and stir well, leaving it to cook for a couple of minutes after it starts to bubble. Pour in the fish milk, whisking constantly, then reduce the heat and cook for 5 minutes until it thickens into a creamy sauce. Season with freshly ground pepper and a bit of salt. Roughly chop the remaining parsley. Add parsley and chile pepper to the béchamel.

  5. Check for bones in the fillets and place the big chunks of fish into the béchamel, stirring them in gently so the fish doesn’t break up too much.

  6. Butter an ovenproof dish. Pour the fish and béchamel sauce into the dish and cover with spoonfuls of yam mash, gently spreading mash on top. Sprinkle a few cubes of butter on top. Place the dish in the oven, and cook for 20–30 minutes until it has a nice golden color and is bubbling.

Yield: 6 servings

image   NOVEL THOUGHTS

Lisa Salazar says Little Bee raised some provocative questions for her Bay Area Book Club of Houston: Members were divided on how they might have responded had they been in the same situation as Andrew, Sarah, and Little Bee in the scene on the beach. “Would we have reacted in the same way as Andrew or Sarah in the moment of crisis?” asks Salazar. “Would we have taken the bullet or not? If we were in Little Bee’s position, would we have watched the sister be dragged away, or would we have taken her place? As humans, we all think we will do the ‘right’ thing, but what was the right thing at that moment? In the end, would we have been an Andrew or a Sarah? These were the questions many of us asked ourselves.”

The novel also stimulated discussion about Little Bee’s experiences with violence and brutality at such a young age. “It brought to light the refugees’ experiences and their fight for self-preservation,” adds Salazar. “There was this sense of sadness among members of our club about Little Bee’s lost innocence.”

More Food for Thought

The eighteen Bookies of Central Minnesota have potluck dinner book club discussions. Each member brings a food mentioned in the book, or a food from that culture, time, or place. For their Little Bee potluck discussion, member Angie Simmonds brought gali akpono (Nigerian cornmeal cookies), and other members contributed plantains and a rice dish with beans. Organizer Sheila DeChantal contributed Nabisco’s bee-shaped graham crackers, served with a cream cheese dip. “Serving food around the books helps us explore the culture and themes of the books more deeply,” says DeChantal.

image

Members of the Potluck Book Club of Phoenix brought either English or Nigerian foods for their Little Bee discussion, a reflection of the two cultures in the story, says Hanna Ricketson.

Nigerian fare, which the group found more unusual, included citrus salad, spicy black beans, and shuku shuku, or Nigerian coconut balls, a coconut cookie made with flour, sugar, and egg, while the English tea service included Darjeeling tea and homemade cranberry and orange scones.