The Way We Were – Sinead Moriarty – Genre – Contemporary
Blurb: Being a good mother is doing the right thing. But sometimes the right thing is not so clear.
When Alice’s husband Ben dies suddenly, her world falls apart. They shared twenty years and two daughters and life without him is unimaginable.
Having lost her parents while young, Alice understands her girls’ pain. At fifteen, Jools is at that awkward age and only Ben could get through to her. And eleven-year-old Holly looks for the answer to everything in books but this time she’s drawing a blank. Alice realizes that for their sakes she must summon up superhuman reserves of strength.
Somehow all three of them come through the dark days. In time, it’s even possible for Alice to consider marrying again, with the girls’ blessing. So when Ben turns up after three years, her world is again turned upside-down. The girls assume that their family can go back to the way they were. Alice is not so sure.
Once more Alice has to find the strength to be the mother her daughters need her to be. But this time what that means is far from clear …
The Way We Were won the Irish Book Award for Popular Fiction in 2015
My Review: A thoroughly enjoyable and very emotional story about family, love and grief. This story is both compelling and realistic with some wonderful characters especially the younger daughter Holly.
About the Author: Growing up, Sinéad Moriarty was inspired by watching her mother, an author of children’s books, writing at the kitchen table. Her childhood dream was to write and her first novel, The Baby Trail, a bitter-sweet story of a couple struggling to have a baby was published in 2004. It has been translated into twenty languages. Sinéad has written twelve novels including The Way We Were (winner of the Irish Book Award for Popular Fiction, 2015), The Secrets Sisters Keep, This Child of Mine and Me and My Sisters. Her latest novel The Good Mother will be published on 17th February.
Sinéad has won over readers and critics telling stories that are intriguing, humane, moving and relevant to modern women. She lives in her native Dublin with her husband and three children.
