Our host Vick Hope is joined by Irish novelist Cecelia Ahern.
Cecelia is an Irish novelist whose debut novel PS I Love You was published in 2004. It went on to become an international bestseller and was adapted into a film starring Hilary Swank. Her second novel, Where Rainbows End, was adapted into the film Love, Rosie starring Lily Collins. She is also the author of a highly acclaimed collection of stories, Roar, which is now a series starring Nicole Kidman on Apple TV+. Cecelia’s latest novel Into the Storm follows the journey of GP Enya and her search for freedom after her life splinters in two.
Listen to the full episode here and read on to see Cecelia’s top five most influential books written by women.
This was my first introduction to a story like that, about something real and dark and sad for kids – it was written so cleverly and was also so educational. It taught us in a way that the school curriculum wasn’t teaching us about the famine and made it human. It’s a beautiful book.
For me as a young child, I was always hoping and dreaming about things that I wanted to achieve and [thinking] “What’s my future going to be like?” and “What’s my life going to be like?” – I was Sprout. There were so many things I wanted to do and this book is so beautiful. I did cry reading about a little hen.
There’s one story called “America” – you’re reading it at first thinking “This is really different” – I love when someone tells a story that is unique, that I’ve never read before […] It just introduces so many amazing thoughts that make sense to me. And it’s a joy, it inspires me and I just wish that there were more because I love reading this kind of work and I find they’re rarely by women.
This book is important to me because I am an introvert. I felt like Susan Cain has started this quiet revolution – she’s talking about how the world is celebrating extroverts, how schools are celebrating extroverts and how office environments are set up to celebrate the extroverts […] Just because someone is louder or speaks as they think, while the introvert has to go off and take more time to themselves and might be better not in an open-plan office but in a room on their own. Everyone has their value and sometimes the introvert can get lost.
It’s a really clever novel. And not really about the sex doll, that’s just the thing that she uncovers in her husband’s garage – it examines what men want from women, really […] It speaks to my soul in a really weird way, like “I get you, I understand!” – It’s a book that you’ll read and make you question yourself the whole way through.
