The Way We Were

I loved this novel so completely and I am left with thoughts about how wonderfully the story was built up, how the title was so fitting to the story and how amazingly the characters touched my heart. Every story has its pluses and minuses, but this one was perfection itself to me. It was a thought-provoking page-turner. It was almost too wonderful to describe.

Alice and Ben have a very happy marriage. They are doctors, she a hard working and popular GP and he an enthusiastic and talented surgeon. They have created a life full of love, built a beautiful home together and worked through tough bereavements, always supporting each other, and have drunk in the joys brought to them by their two beautiful daughters. They are the golden couple with the perfect marriage, popular and blessed with good friends and with everything to live for. When Ben dies in the most shocking circumstances Alice is distraught, totally shaken and bereft. Her kind brother moves in with her family and works tirelessly to help his sister and nieces come to terms with their loss, to step by step rebuild their lives and look towards a happier future. It is a rocky road ahead, with fifteen-year-old Jools in pieces and eleven-year-old Holly struggling to understand how her life could go on without her beloved Daddy. Although Alice is heartbroken she realises she must step up to the mark and become the solid rock that her children need as a foundation in order to survive the trauma, if only she can find the strength amidst her own grief, anger and heartache.

Three years later she receives news that again rocks her world. She and her family have at last emerged from the dark tunnel of grief and have moved on, coming to terms with their loss and determined to make a happy new life for themselves. When she learns that Ben has turned up, alive but weakened by his ordeal and is on his way home, she is far from sure that they can all live happily ever after. Her life has changed, she has changed and certainly Ben will have changed and will have some serious issues to confront. But when her daughters hear the news they are both really ecstatic, they cannot wait for their father’s return and they clearly expect lives to return to normal because of all the happy family memories they cherish. Alice does not feel their optimism and ponders just what life with her husband will be like, whether they can pick up where they left off or whether too much has happened to both of them. There are elements of this story that I have deliberately withheld because I do not want to spoil the story for you’ Suffice it to say that these plot features are significant to the story and make absolute essential reading.

This novel was a poignant story of a family wrenched apart. The story telling was sublime, filled with empathy and told from multiple viewpoints. I loved the character of Ben. His story was very harrowing to read, but he was a very strong, determined and principled man. I rooted for him with all my heart, hoping beyond all hope that his story would end well. Three letters composed within the frame of the story were a very emotional and yet deliciously romantic read that made me shed tears of compassion. I loved the way the characters told the story from their own viewpoints and as I read on, each of them became dear to me and left me feeling quite conflicted. This novel is due to be published in the USA, but in 2015 it was the winner of the Irish Book Award for Popular Fiction – very deservedly so. I drank it in, I thought long and hard about writing my review. Although the novel is filled with emotional angst, there are also lighter, humorous times within it. It’s a delicious slice of life, each balancing the other out. I would like to thank Netgalley and Penguin Ireland for my copy of 'The Way We Were' sent to me in return for an honest review. This is an excellent read and is absolutely certainly going to be one of my top reads for 2016.