Incendiary

Chris Cleave's novel takes the form of a letter written by a grieving young mother to Osama bin Laden. Her husband and four-year-old son have been killed in a suicide bombing at a football match in London, and she writes to persuade him to give up his campaign of terror by showing him the sadness of a working-class life blown apart. The novel drew international headlines because its plot closely resembled the 7 July London bombings, carried out on the very day it was published, and it was later adapted into a film.

Jacqui Pretty, who founded Grammar Factory, included it among the novels she had loved over the past year.