Little Bee is a 16-year-old Nigerian detainee in a British immigration detention center. She has noticed that the survivors, the ones who get to stay in Britain, are either beautiful or talkative. Not willing to depend on her looks, Little Bee applies herself assiduously to refining her English skills.

She works hard to transmute the English of her native land (English is the official language of Nigeria) into the “Queen’s English.”

Little Bee is not crazy about the Queen’s English but she is fond of the Queen herself. She sees that the life of the Queen is not without risk, much as her life as a detainee. They are both women who have to deal with the influence of politics in their lives, or as Little Bee puts it, “The Queen and me, we are ready for the worst.”

The worst for Little Bee would be deportation back to Nigeria. So when she is mistakenly released from the detention center, she sets out to find the only people she knows in England.

Sarah O’Rourke is the editor of a successful fashion magazine and her husband Andrew is a political journalist. Little Bee and the O’Rourkes met on a beach in Nigeria two years ago, while the O’Rourkes were on vacation and Little Bee was running for her life.

Strangers from different countries, different worlds really, they find themselves thrust into circumstances where they must make choices — choices that change their lives and leave them all with scars, both physical and psychological.

Successful in her quest to find the London home of the O’Rourkes, Little Bee pleads for help in finding asylum in Britain.

So once again, choices have to be made and lives will be changed. Only this time, the O’Rourkes’ son, Charlie, will also be affected.

Little Bee is a character who gets under your skin and soon takes up residence in your heart. You care about what happens to her and are therefore willing to listen to her story, even though she warns you from the beginning that it is sad. How can you resist a young girl with the wisdom to say “Sad words are just another beauty. A sad story means, this storyteller is alive”?

Little Bee — her musings on the life of the Queen of England, her observations about the difference between her native culture and Western culture, and her courage when standing on a Nigerian beach in heartbreaking circumstances — is one of the most alive characters I have ever encountered in a book.

In his second novel, (the award-winning “Incendiary” was his first) author Chris Cleave has produced a stunningly written, haunting story.

“Little Bee” is not a long book and therefore can be read in a relatively short time. But if its effect on you is anything like its effect on me, you’ll remember “Little Bee” for a long time after you turn the last page.