By Christine Yunn-Yu Sun
Into the Storm is the first of Irish author Cecelia Ahern’s books that this reviewer has read.
It offers a quick showcase of the author’s capability to shape her female characters by building conflicts into them.
The story’s main character, Enya, is dreading the approach of her 47th birthday because it is the age at which her mother died.
Already fearing for her mortality, she is also emotionally vulnerable due to a suffocating marriage and what she feels is an increasingly remote relationship with her teenage son.
Right on this juncture, Enya, a medical doctor, becomes involved in a shocking event on a remote mountain road.
She saves the life of the victim of an apparent hit-and-run – a teenager who very much reminds her of her own son – but the incident leaves her deeply shaken.
As the story develops, we delve into Enya’s mind and slowly gain an understanding as to why she feels she has to flee her old life.
And it takes some convincing – why this rational, professional woman chooses to leave her family behind and move to a rural practice in the mountains.
Specifically – why she desperately tries to find some peace that will put an end to her anxiety, confusion and increasing paranoia, but only ends up making a bigger mess in the process.
Enya often seems clumsy and self-contradictory, and her attempts to confront life’s many inconveniences are not always successful.
Her numerous troubles are mainly her own doing, piling one lie on top of another in her efforts to avoid the truths and their consequences – until the whole castle in the sky collapses.
In other words, she is just an ordinary human being.
Which is an indicator of the author’s considerable skills in laying bare the complex nature of seemingly simple concepts such as love and responsibility.
We cannot help but like Enya, so much so that when we finally learn the reason why she is fleeing, hiding and lying along the way, it no longer matters.
What matters instead is the PROCESS in which she learns to be true to herself, including and especially all her flaws, mistakes and insecurities.
Enya’s relationship with her mother and sister is perhaps the most endearing part of the story.
Also eye-catching is the character Margaret, whose life is similarly burdened by her love and responsibility for her family.
An equally brilliant character is Enya’s mother, whose transformation from Brigid to Brighid is both informative and inspiring.
Ultimately, Into the Storm is about women’s self-empowerment and mutual support, about facing the consequences of their own decisions, and accepting the fact that they are far from perfect.
There is no vanity in this story.
Instead, it shows us it is never too late to admit our weaknesses, faults and failures.
