Roar

Roar tells thirty stories about the lives of thirty women. Each feels distress, a loss of self-worth, or a need to speak out. They differ, but each finds strength to change her life. These short tales mix strange events with women's daily struggles.

In the first story, a woman fades from sight bit by bit. This change shows how others have made her feel she no longer matters. Her body feels no pain, but her feelings suffer deeply. Other women face strange changes of their own. The earth swallows one woman; one more forgets her name. One eats photos; one has a feather in her brain. One wears her heart outside her body, on her sleeve. A woman makes her home on a shelf. One more woman grows wings.

The tales mix pain with humour, and warmth with harshness. They move from fear and lost words towards laughter. They also move towards firm will and inner calm. They focus on women as friends who give each other strength.

This is Cecelia Ahern's first book of short stories. Her novels have reached bestseller lists in more than one country. She gives these tales a feminist focus. She does so through fantasy and close attention to feelings.