‘Surviving the storm is only the beginning…’
[ About Into The Storm ]
ONE NIGHT
It is a wild night in the middle of December, and GP Enya is crouched over a teenage boy, performing CPR in the rain.
ONE MOMENT
The boy survives, but Enya’s life splinters in two. Trapped in a loveless marriage, the storm propels her to break free.
ONE CHANCE TO BE FREE
But even in the remote country town that becomes her sanctuary, Enya is haunted by the night in the rain.
Beneath the boughs of an ancient tree that tells a thousand stories, can she find the courage to face her own?
[ My Review ]
Into The Storm by Cecelia Ahern published with Harper Collins October 10th and is described as ‘a gripping novel about motherhood, escaping the past. and what really happened on one wild stormy night.’
Enya is in a shared GP practise with her husband Xander but their relationship is fractured. They have a teenage son, Finn, but Enya feels a distance growing between herself, Finn and Xander. Since moving to Xander’s family home in the countryside, Enya has felt her sense of identity slowly slipping away. Her conversations with Xander are no longer a comfort to her and her once strong connection with Finn is cracking. Enya is struggling through her days and, on one rainy evening, her world upends when she is caught up in a serious accident involving a young boy. Enya does her best with CPR and when the paramedics arrive he is taken to hospital but Enya is left shaken.
This isolated incident sends Enya spiralling and she realises that, in order to breathe, she needs to make some drastic changes in her life. Enya is rattled by a number of events and believes that a move to a new part of the country might just provide the escape that she needs. But can you really escape your past?
Cecelia Ahern describes herself as being ‘drawn to the surreal’ and in Into The Storm there are many references to the mythical and the mystical. Enya’s relationship with nature and the world around her has been fraught for many years. Her mother, who passed away when Enya was young, wrote many articles about the seasons, mother nature, and all the related symbolism. Enya kept these cuttings, regularly dipping into them, reminding her of her mother and her beliefs. When Enya moves to a new village there is a rag tree in her garden, a tradition that is very much a Celtic one. Enya is unexpectedly thrown by its presence, causing her discomfort and unrest. As a GP Enya diagnoses people on a daily basis yet she is struggling to control and manage her own mental health. Enya is in trouble in so many ways. She knows she needs to do something to break the cycle but is she brave enough to step up and own her own journey? Can Enya save herself?
Into The Storm is a novel of self-discovery. There were certain elements of the story that didn’t fit well for me and certain characters that I just did not like but overall the message that Cecelia Ahern conveys is clear. Enya is dealing with multiple issues including her mortality, her anxiety, her vulnerability, trauma, and more, and Cecelia Ahern handles these in a very sensitive manner. Into The Storm‘s conclusion was true and authentic to the story which I felt was very fitting and added to the whole message of the novel. Choosing the correct path in life may not always be easy, with complex obstacles that must be navigated around. We must be true to ourselves, create our own destiny, trust our heart and more importantly trust our instincts.
*Thank you to Harper Collins Ireland for a copy of Into The Storm in exchange for my honest review.
[ Bio ]
Cecelia Ahern was born and grew up in Dublin. Her novels have been translated into thirty-five languages and have sold more than twenty-five million copies in over fifty countries. Two of her books have been adapted as films and she has created several TV series.
She and her books have won numerous awards, including the Irish Book Award for Popular Fiction for The Year I Met You.
She lives in Dublin with her family.
