Little Bee by Chris Cleave

Little Bee is the story of a young woman who escapes the horrors and tragedies of her home country, Nigeria, only to end up in a detention center in England. She escaped a world where her sister and their fellow villagers were attacked, beaten, savaged and killed, all for the rights to the oil that lay below their feet. Little Bee eventually makes her way to a woman in the suburbs of London with whom she shares a terrible secret. What happened on the day they met on the beach in Nigeria two years prior, brings them together and tears them apart. The way that Little Bee struggles to survive after everything she has been through and the amazing writing makes this one of those books you have to frequently stop reading and put down just to 'digest' what you have just read.

a simple little word horror. It means something different to the people from my village. In your country if you are not scared enough already, you can go watch a horror film. Afterward you can go out of the cinema into the night and for a little while there is horror in everything. Perhaps there are murderers lying in wait for you at home. You think this because there is a light on in your house that you are certain you did not leave on... For one hour you are haunted.. and then the feeling fades away. Horror in your country is something you take a dose of to remind yourself that you are not suffering from it. For me and the girls from my village. horror is a disease and we are sick with it. It is not a illness you can cure yourself of by standing up and letting the big red cinema seat fold itself up behind you."

It is ultimately the story of the struggle for survival and the hope that comes with act of simple human kindness. Little Bee is one of those books you'll read again and recommend to everyone.