Sometimes it takes losing everything to truly find yourself…Since Sandy Shortt’s childhood classmate disappeared twenty years ago, Sandy has been obsessed with missing things. Finding what is lost becomes her single-minded goal—from the lone sock that vanishes in the washing machine to the car keys she misplaced. It’s no surprise, then, that Sandy’s life’s work becomes finding people who have vanished from their loved ones. Sandy’s family is baffled and concerned by her increasing preoccupation. Her parents can’t understand her compulsion, and she pushes them away further by losing herself in the work of tracking down these missing people. She gives up her life in order to offer a flicker of hope to devastated families…and escape the disappointments of her own.Jack Ruttle is one of those devastated people. It’s been a year since his brother Donal vanished into thin air, and he has enlisted Sandy Shortt to find him. But before she is able to offer Jack the information he so desperately needs, Sandy goes missing too…and Jack now finds himself searching for his brother and the one woman who understood his pain.One minute Sandy is jogging through the park, the next, she can’t figure out where she is. The path is obscured. Nothing is familiar. A clearing up ahead reveals a camp site, and it’s there that Sandy discovers the impossible: she has inadvertently stumbled upon the place— and people—she’s been looking for all her life, a land where all the missing people go. A world away from her loved ones and the home she ran from for so long, Sandy soon resorts to her old habit again, searching. Though this time, she is desperately trying to find her way home…For more information, please visit www.ceceliaahernbooks.com.
Book Details
Format
mass_market
ISBN-10
0786891319
ISBN-13
9780786891313
Publication Date
Nov 2009
Item Weight
0.44 pounds
Length
6.73 inch
Width
4.17 inch
Height
1.00 inch
First Sentence
Jenny-May Butler, the little girl who lived across the road from me, went missing when I was a child.
Cecelia Ahern was born on September 30, 1981 in Dublin, Ireland. She is the daughter of Bertie Ahern, Irish Taoiseach (Prime Minister) since June 26,1997, and is the sister-in-law of Nicky Byrne of Irish popgroup Westlife, who is married to her older sister, Georgina Ahern. In 2000, Cecelia was part of the Irish pop-group Shimma, who finished third in the Irish national final for the Eurovision Song Contest. Before embarking on her writing career, Cecelia Ahern completed a Degree in Journalism and Media Communications.
At twenty-one, she wrote her debut novel PS, I Love You, published in January 2004, which was sold to over forty countries. The novel was one of the biggest-selling debut novels of 2004, reaching No.1 in Ireland and in the U.K. Sunday Times bestseller list and was selected for the Richard and Judy Summer Read campaign. It was also a bestseller throughout Europe and the U.S.A., staying on the best-seller list in Germany for over 52 weeks. For her debut novel, she was nominated for Best Newcomer 2004/05 at the British Book and in 2006, she was long-listed for the IMPAC award. The film of the same title was optioned by Warner Bros and Wendy Finerman Productions. It has now been made into a motion picture directed by Richard LaGravenese and starring Hilary Swank, Lisa Kudrow, Kathy Bates, Gerry Butler, Harry Connick Jr., Gina Gershon and Jeffrey Dean Morgan.
In November 2004, her second book, Where Rainbows End (U.S.A.: Love, Rosie / Rosie Dunne), also reached No.1 in Ireland and the UK, remaining at the top of the Irish bestsellers list for 12 weeks and again a bestseller internationally. For her second book, she won the 2005 Irish Post Award for Literature and a 2005 Corine Award for Where Rainbows End (Fur Immer Viellecht), which was voted by German readers. In November 2005, her third book, If You Could See Me Now was published and also became an international bestseller. In May 2007 Cosmopolitan U.S. honoured her with a Fun Fearless Fiction Award 2007 for her thrid book. It has been optioned by SB Films (London) Producer Simon Brooks.
In October 2006, her fourth novel, A Place Called Here, was a international number one bestseller and has gone straight to No.1 in U.K. and Ireland. It was published in U.S.A. under the title There's No Place Like Here. It is optioned by Touchstone with Warren Littlefield for a TV Drama series.
Cecelia has contributed with short stories to the following anthologies for which all her royalties go to charity: Irish Girls are Back in Town, Short and Sweet, Moments, Ladies Night 4, Girls Night in 2 and she has written a novella titled Mrs. Whippy.
Other published stories are The Production Line for Express Magazine, Every Year for Harrod's Magazine, The Things That I Remember for Woman's Own, Remembering Mum for Express Magazine, Mallard and May for Woman and Home.
Cecelia also is the co-creater (along with Donald Todd) and producer of the ABC half-hour comedy television show, Samantha Who? Stars: Christina Applegate, Jean Smart, Jennifer Esposito, Barry Watson, Kevin Dunn, Melissa McCarthy and Tim Russ.
Cecelia Ahern continues living in Dublin and is currently writing her next novel.
