Published by Penguin
On the surface, Marian Keyes’ latest novel, The Woman Who Stole My Life, may look like a rags-to-riches story ending with a thud back down to earth but it’s actually a lot more complicated than that.
When the novel opens, Dublin beautician, Stella Sweeney is living a normal life as a stressed mum and wife, However, everything changes one morning when she wakes up to discover she can only move her eyelids.
Stella has Guillain-Barré syndrome which renders her paralysed and confined to a hospital bed for months. With neurologist, Mannix Taylor, she begins the long journey to learn how to walk and talk again.
Her recovery inspires her to pen a self-help book called, One Blink At Time, which becomes an international bestseller and she finds herself an overnight literary sensation. Her life is transformed as she finds herself on American chat shows discussing her recovery and subsequent book.
Fast forward a couple of years, the success has dried up, she’s split from her husband and back in Dublin trying to write the all important second book.
The narrative structure of the novel proves a little confusing in the beginning, switching from flashbacks to the present day, but the parallel timelines show the huge changes in Stella’s life in a relatively short space of time.
As always Keyes writes in her trademark entertaining and amusing style but she still manages to write a moving story without it becoming glum and overly soppy.
A must read on these cold, winter days.