FICTION: NIAMH GREENEreviews The Book of TomorrowBy Cecelia Ahern HarperCollins, 320 pp, £12.99
WITH SIX international bestsellers, not to mention a play, a movie and a TV series under her young belt, Cecelia Ahern is a global publishing phenomenon. In allowing her unique voice to shine and by eschewing more traditional literary limitations, she has won the hearts of legions of fans worldwide. Her seventh novel, The Book of Tomorrow, is again packed with the fairy-tale qualities that her loyal readers will love, but a darker heart also lurks beneath the magic.
The novel’s main character, teenager Tamara Goodwin, is a spoiled, Ugg-wearing Celtic Tiger cub who has been forced to move to the middle of nowhere because her privileged lifestyle has come crashing down around her ears.
Ahern’s depiction of this confused teenager is pitch perfect: Tamara is the ultimate spoilt rich kid who can’t quite believe she has to forfeit her gingerbread lattes and yoga to live in a tiny house with a strange, slip-wearing aunt who does nothing but talk about God and force-feed her carbs, and an even stranger uncle who says very little but does a lot of “snot snorting” instead.
Meanwhile, her mother has locked herself away and sits in her bedroom in a rocking chair, apparently having an ill-timed nervous breakdown.
No angel, Ahern’s main protagonist can be selfish, judgmental and outspoken, as only the very young and arrogant can be. In fact she admits she has been a horrible person, an awful daughter and a bad pupil – she almost gave her substitute teacher a nervous breakdown. All these imperfections and character flaws only make Tamara more interesting for the reader. She wouldn’t be half as much fun if she were a goody two- shoes in a floaty floral dress. This girl has attitude in spades: she’s a feisty straight-talker who can swear like a sailor, drinks alcohol even though she’s underage and has had plenty of experience with the opposite sex. In short, Tamara is a modern teenager, not simply a caricature, and Ahern captures her warts-and-all personality expertly. Her cocky attitude and sarcasm had me turning the pages, “snot snorting” with laughter and applauding the author’s witty turn of phrase.
But, of course, in Ahern’s supernatural world all is not as it seems. Scratch below the surface and the reader discovers that Tamara, despite her tough and hard-nosed exterior, is overwhelmed with grief and cries herself to sleep every night. When she gets her hands on a padlocked book that can look into the future, things take a mysterious and altogether more sinister turn. On the first page of this novel, the author tells us this story is one for which some people will have to suspend their disbelief. If that is you, I recommend that, in Tamara’s words, you be a little less jaded and a little less cynical and try Cecelia Ahern’s new novel. It might just work its spell on you, too.
Niamh Greene's Letters to a Love Rat(Penguin Ireland) is out in paperback
