Incendiary

What if Osama Bin Laden bombed London? What if a tough, honest East End woman wrote a letter to Osama Bin Laden, telling him her feelings about the deaths of her son and husband in the bombing?

What if a novel based on that premise was published in England on July 7, 2005?

Chris Cleave is the author; Incendiary is his first book. There are still posters for it in the Tube, because the Underground workers are too busy digging out bodies to take down ads, even ones that have become painfully tactless.

The first chapter is up on his web site. I think it’s wonderful—grimly funny, heartbreaking, horrifying.