I don’t want to give too much of the story away, which I think is so easy when giving a review – I highly recommend this book. Such a beautiful story of family and love. It’s about a character named Alice who has the ability to see people’s emotions in the form of colours around their bodies; she sees auras. She can instantly know just by looking at someone exactly how they’re feeling, and if the colour travels to her, then she can also feel exactly as they are feeling. Alice feels that this skill is a burden, not a gift, and we follow her as she tries to navigate her own life, carve out her own path despite feeling overwhelmed by everyone around her. To be more precise, she sees colours associated with all the people, and even plants, around her. Like auras, but that's not something she knows - yet.

Once again from the very first chapter, as so often happens in Ahern’s books, you are drawn in from the very start, wanting to know more. The concept of seeing colours to represent emotions is genius, to have the main character be able to see and absorb these feelings and how this insight into others might not be a ‘gift’ is just captivating. On several occasions through the book you could relate to how you really don’t know what is going on with others around you, life seemingly perfect on the outside but possibly something that couldn’t be further from the truth. I didn’t find those aspects challenging to write. I feel very comfortable writing about people’s foibles – I love to go into the dense dark spaces of the mind and see the world from my character’s eyes. The more nuanced they are, the better. Why do you think you are drawn to writing about loss?

Featured Reviews

It was certainly overwhelming. The workload was immense from the beginning which was excellent training. However, being from Ireland and being surrounded by grounded Irish people, I knew, because I was told, that what was happening to me was not the norm. I knew that it was not going to be the case for every single book for the rest of my life and so I was embracing the moment and enjoying it as much as I possibly could. What makes your work so attractive to film-makers? If you asked me to describe this book in a colour, I would call it the blue of a mist - pretty to look at but not very discernable. If you asked me how I felt reading it, I'd say it tugged at my heartstrings but it also left me a bit confused - what was the point? Is it a sort of bildungsroman? Just a story of a woman with Synesthesia? If you asked me whether I would recommend the book to others, I'd say it depends on whether you would like to spend an evening reading about a woman, her struggles with her undiagnosed condition, beautiful relationship with her older brother, complicated relationship with her mother and a romance that just didn't seem right. Thanks so much for reading my review, I look forward to reading any comments. Feel free to browse my books read for your next great read. Sarah Gilmartin: ‘A lot more needs to be done to make the reporting of sexual crimes easier for victims’ ] I’ve read that you’re not comfortable speaking in public. What does writing mean to you? I have had a life-long relationship with colours. Enduring them, accepting them, surrendering to them.”

Alice is just a young girl when she starts seeing colors swirling around her mother, Lily. Soon she starts seeing colours around everyone and soon learns they are reflecting the person’s mood & emotions. But Alice doesn't want the gift, and struggles with adjusting to being different to everyone else. At times, it's overwhelming for her feeling everyone's emotions, so she hides away from the world and only interacts with very few people. There are some big leaps forward in time, but for the most part I didn't felt that I needed to know the detail of what had happened in the intervening years. It's only towards the end, when suddenly there are children and grandchildren, that it feels too rushed.

Wie kann man ein Leben meistern, wenn Ablenkung ein fester Bestandteil im Alltag ist? Wie kann man sich angstfrei in einer Gesellschaft bewegen, wenn man zum Beispiel auf einem Kinderspielplatz die dunkelsten Absichten mancher Menschen sieht und spürt? Und was passiert, wenn jemand mit Synästhesie auf jemanden trifft, der keinerlei Farbe widerspiegelt? From her extraordinarily difficult childhood, we follow Alice throughout her life, dealing with her strange gift which she cannot describe, therefore nobody can understand, and consequently has her labelled a troublemaker. Relationships with her siblings and her mother are complicated. Her school days are fraught with problems due to her condition preventing her from making friends, until she finds people she can relate to in a special school, just one of many breakthrough moments in the story. Sniffy. My 40-year-old pillow case that is now a rag and still comes everywhere with me. What is the most beautiful book that you own?