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The Chain by Chimene Suleyman

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The Chain

Publisher
Orion
Publish Date
28 March 2024
Run Time
6 hours 8 minutes
Format
Audiobook

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What to expect

'A powerful tribute to female solidarity that you won't be able to stop thinking about' GLAMOUR
'An ode to how women support, protect and uphold each other in a misogynistic world. Read then pass it on' STYLIST
'Took my breath away from the first page and did not let go of me till the very last' NIKITA GILL

'There is no singular experience of womanhood and we create the chain to remind ourselves of this. We stand beside each other in such a way that we may say, Tell me your story as a woman, and yours, and yours, and yours . . .'

One cold January day, Chimene Suleyman walks out of an abortion clinic to find her boyfriend has vanished. Later she watches as her building's CCTV shows him calmly removing his belongings from her home, erasing himself from the life he has destroyed. Then she discovers he has done this before. But this is not his story. Told with breathtaking clarity and tenderness, The Chain is a love letter to the sisterhood that formed despite (and in spite of) a man who deceived dozens of women. Suleyman shows us just how fiercely women shelter and strengthen one another in a society that asks them to sacrifice themselves for men.

Critics Review

  • A jaw-dropping manhunt, The Chain is also an ode to how women support, protect and uphold each other in a misogynistic world. Read then pass it on

    STYLIST, Book of the Month

  • I loved The Chain. Urgent, unflinching and yet so full of love and nurture for women and womanhood, it is chilling and it is familiar and it is redemptive to read and beautifully written. This book makes women feel seen and understood, it is deeply powerful

    JOSIE LONG

  • I was utterly floored by The Chain. In its astonishing specificity it finds a way to speak to huge and unsettling aspects of the human experience. It has the pace of a thriller and the weight of poetry. I can immediately think of so many women whose hands I want to press it into. I am immediately, selfishly desperate to discuss it

    EVIE WYLD

  • A searing memoir . . . a powerful tribute to female solidarity that you won't be able to stop thinking about

    GLAMOUR

See more reviews
  • The Chain is a devastating account of brutal misogyny told with the careful precision of a brilliant storyteller. The power of Suleyman's language combined with her poetic words culminate in a story that has been etched on my soul forever. A truly incredible feat as both memoir and story, The Chain took my breath away from the first page and did not let go of me till the very last. A must-read, a must-have and one of my biggest recommendations of 2024

    NIKITA GILL

  • A heartfelt and powerful book . . . Suleyman's personal story unfolds grippingly

    SUNDAY INDEPENDENT

  • The Chain made me angry, laugh and cry. I tore it apart and gobbled it up. It is stunning. STUNNING

    LAURA DOCKRILL

  • The Chain is revolutionary, it is necessary, succinct in detail and precise, it is both empowering and powerful, deeply moving and courageous, vivid and candid. A compassionate and brilliant memoir from Chimene Suleyman, to read it is to be invited to reach inside these pages and hold the space, to replenish your own truth and grief, and find courage for many years to come

    SALENA GODDEN

  • The Chain is an important book which highlights the fear of simply being a woman in what is still a man's world and how the only way we're going to come out on top is if we unite

    ARAMINTA HALL

  • Consistently acute . . . [Suleyman's] book is impressive as much for the author's skill and elegance as for the terror of the story that fuels it. A maddening tale told with insistence, insight, and beauty

    KIRKUS, Starred Review

  • A bruising, moving, harrowing and staggeringly beautiful memoir. The Chain is a rare and special book, and I'm grateful to have read it

    CHRIS WHITAKER

  • The Chain is thrilling in its exposure of manipulative private romantic relationships, the ones that can leave us feeling too ashamed and isolated to share our reality with our sisters. A choral testimony, infused with a poet's image-making and the wisdom of poems, it reminds me of Adrienne Rich's powerful 'Translations' as Suleyman dares to speak her truth - her sisters' truth - to show us how 'this way of grief / is shared, unnecessary / and political'

    AMY KEY

  • I read the Chain in one sitting and found it shattering, riveting and impossible to put down. It's beautifully written, thoughtful and so moving. Chimene Suleyman underscores how common these issues are and how absolutely necessary this book is

    BIDISHA MAMATA

  • A love letter to the sisterhood and resilience of women in spite of terrible men

    BOOK RIOT

User Reviews

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Details

Author
Chimene Suleyman
Narrator
Chimene Suleyman
Duration
6 hours 8 minutes
Release Date
28 March 2024
ISBN
9781399606509
Format
Audiobook
Publisher
Orion
Genre
Memoirs, Sexual abuse and harassment, Sex and sexuality, social aspects, True crime

Synopsis

'A powerful tribute to female solidarity that you won't be able to stop thinking about' GLAMOUR'An ode to how women support, protect and uphold each other in a misogynistic world. Read then pass it on' STYLIST'Took my breath away from the first page and did not let go of me till the very last' NIKITA GILL'There is no singular experience of womanhood and we create the chain to remind ourselves of this. We stand beside each other in such a way that we may say, Tell me your story as a woman, and yours, and yours, and yours . . .'One cold January day, Chimene Suleyman walks out of an abortion clinic to find her boyfriend has vanished. Later she watches as her building's CCTV shows him calmly removing his belongings from her home, erasing himself from the life he has destroyed. Then she discovers he has done this before. But this is not his story. Told with breathtaking clarity and tenderness, The Chain is a love letter to the sisterhood that formed despite (and in spite of) a man who deceived dozens of women. Suleyman shows us just how fiercely women shelter and strengthen one another in a society that asks them to sacrifice themselves for men.

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