Cecelia Ahern – “A Place Called Here”

Publ: 2006 ISBN: 139780007247073
Rating: *****


I don’t recall where I came across this book but I know it was recommended by someone or some thing. Whoever it was – Thank you.

There are two principal sorts of fantasy book. Those which are set in a completely different world, often with creatures that we do not have in our world (like “Lord of the Rings”), and those which are set in our world but tiptoe into another (like Diana Gabaldon’s “Outlander” books) . This is one of the latter with psychology, mystery and romance thrown in for good measure.

In October 2006, “A Place Called Here”, Ahern’s fourth novel, was a international number one bestseller and went straight to No.1 in U.K. and Ireland. It was published in U.S.A. under the title There's No Place Like Here. It is optioned by Touchstone with Warren Littlefield for a TV Drama series.

The plot moves timeframe within the life of Sandy Shortt whose childhood schoolmate disappeared twenty years ago. Since then Sandy has been obsessed with missing things. Finding becomes her goal - whether it's the odd sock that vanished in the washing machine, the car keys she misplaced in her rush to get to work or the graver issue of finding the people who vanish from their lives. Sandy dedicates her life to this, offering devastated families a flicker of hope as she searches for missing persons.

A couple of quotes:
“She cared all right, but one year on, she still slept at night during the longest hours of his life. The hours when Jack cared most about everything but the hours when, deep in her sleep, Gloria didn’t and couldn’t care at all. Every night he felt the distance grow between her world and his.”
“That was the other thing I hated about kids; they always said the exact things that deep down you already knew, would never admit, and most certainly never wanted to hear.”
“We said we would meet again but we made no arrangements. Not out of any badness between us, but because I felt it had all been said, or not said but understood, and she probably did too. To know she was there was enough, and for her to know I was around probably was too. Sometimes that’s all people ever really need. Just to know.”


CECELIA AHERN was born on September 30, 1981 in Dublin, Ireland. She is the daughter of Bertie Ahern, Irish Taoiseach (Prime Minister) since June 26,1997, and is the sister-in-law of Nicky Byrne of Irish popgroup Westlife, who is married to her older sister, Georgina Ahern. In 2000, Cecelia was part of the Irish pop-group Shimma, who finished third in the Irish national final for the Eurovision Song Contest. Before embarking on her writing career, Cecelia Ahern completed a Degree in Journalism and Media Communications.

At twenty-one, she wrote her debut novel PS, I Love You, published in January 2004, which was sold to over forty countries. The novel was one of the biggest-selling debut novels of 2004, reaching No.1 in Ireland and in the U.K. Sunday Times bestseller list and was selected for the Richard and Judy Summer Read campaign.