Review - Gold by Chris Cleave

My Thanks to NetGalley and Simon and Schuster for a digital copy to read and review.

Gold

by

Chris Cleave

Published 3rd July 2012 by Simon and Schuster

Synopsis from Goodreads

Gold is the story of Zoe and Kate, world-class athletes who have been friends and rivals since their first day of Elite training. They’ve loved, fought, betrayed, forgiven, consoled, gloried, and grown up together. Now on the eve of London 2012, their last Olympics, both women will be tested to their physical and emotional limits. They must confront each other and their own mortality to decide, when lives are at stake: What would you sacrifice for the people you love, if it meant giving up the thing that was most important to you in the world?

My 5***** Review

In this year of the London 2012 Olympics, it is refreshing to read a story about athletes that focuses not only on their drive and ambition, but also concentrates on the human cost of this determination on families, as the athletes pursue their dream of glory.

In Gold, Chris Cleave has with his usual skill, and dexterity with words, managed to capture the strong competitive bond that exists between athletes, and has developed this into a believable and emotional story of single minded ambition, juxtaposed against the fragility of their personal life. With interesting insight, the story moves between time frames, and gradually piece by piece we begin to understand the bond that binds the three athletes, Zoe, Kate and Jack. The sections that highlight their competitive streak is fascinating, and heart stopping, and yet it their personal moments that stay with you, and this fine attention to detail will have you wanting to read on to the story’s final conclusion.

With no particular interest in sport other than as an armchair spectator, I was surprised by how much I enjoyed this novel. The book is very easy to read, however, it not an easy book to forget, and even now after finishing the story I find myself returning to the characters, and almost wish I could watch them compete in the velodrome, in the impending London 2012 Olympic games.



Chris Cleave is the talented author of Incendiary and Little Bee

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