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    The Storm We Made: A Novel
    The Storm We Made: A Novel
    The Storm We Made: A Novel
    Audiobook10 hours

    The Storm We Made: A Novel

    Written by Vanessa Chan

    Narrated by Samantha Tan

    4.5/5

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    About this audiobook

    NATIONAL BESTSELLER * A GOOD MORNING AMERICA BOOK CLUB PICK

    In this “espionage-laden family epic” (Vanity Fair), an ordinary housewife becomes an unlikely spy—and her dark secrets will test even the most unbreakable ties.

    Malaya, 1945. Cecily Alcantara’s family is in terrible danger: her fifteen-year-old son, Abel, has disappeared, and her youngest daughter, Jasmin, is confined in a basement to prevent being pressed into service at the comfort stations. Her eldest daughter Jujube, who works at a tea house frequented by drunk Japanese soldiers, becomes angrier by the day.

    Cecily knows two things: that this is all her fault; and that her family must never learn the truth.

    A decade prior, Cecily had been desperate to be more than a housewife to a low-level bureaucrat in British-colonized Malaya. A chance meeting with the charismatic General Fujiwara lured her into a life of espionage, pursuing dreams of an “Asia for Asians.” Ten years later as the war reaches its apex, her actions have caught up with her. Now her family is on the brink of destruction—and she will do anything to save them.

    Told from the perspectives of four unforgettable characters, The Storm We Made spans years of pain, triumph, and perseverance. “The tenderness in its details, the ordinary ways that these characters love and laugh in the face of the extraordinary…Chan shows us, with clarity and care, how the truest mirror comes from the intimacy of human connection” (The New York Times Book Review).

    Editor's Note

    Richly drawn…

    In the years preceding World War II, Cecily Alcantara is taken with the idea of building an “Asia for Asians,” and begins spying for the Japanese to usurp British rule over her home country of Malaya (now Malaysia). A decade later, the fallout of her choices has devastating consequences — not just for the nation, but within her very family. Chan’s historical fiction offers richly drawn, morally complex characters while exploring the generational traumas of war and occupation.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherSimon & Schuster Audio
    Release dateJan 2, 2024
    ISBN9781797166247
    Author

    Vanessa Chan

    Vanessa Chan is the Malaysian author of internationally bestselling The Storm We Made, a Good Morning America Book Club Pick, BBC Radio 2 Book Club pick, and New York Times Editor’s Choice. The novel, her first, will be translated into more than twenty languages worldwide. Her other work has been published in Vogue, Esquire, and more.

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    Reviews for The Storm We Made

    4.5/5

    115 ratings7 reviews

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    Review must be at least 10 words

    • 4/5
      An incredible story from a perspective I had never encountered nefore.
      This novel is incredible in portraying the lives of a Malaysian family during British and Japanese occupation, offering interesting takes on the enemies. The story is a deep dive inside the lives of people that are deeply imperfect and changed by trauma and guilt. All of their faults are very human and make their development a terrible one to witness, as it is a relentless procession of brokenness that leaves everyone involved forever changed. Reflecting on the cost of trauma on innocent lives the novel offers a glimpse into tragedy that I won't forget.
    • 5/5
      Marvelous, lovingly observed, beautifully narrated. I learned SO MUCH about Malaysia from this book. Tolstoy, Maugham, and Arundhati Roy come to mind. Don't miss it.
    • 5/5
      Beautifully written, but an emotionally hard book to read. Have tissues handy
    • 5/5
      Simply wonderful, I just Looove this book and the characters, every single page is so good! I recommend this with book sooo much, just read, cry and enjoy!!!
    • 5/5
      What a touching and compelling story! Very well read. Great character development. I loved it.
    • 4/5
      The Storm We Made: A Novel
      Author: Vanessa Chan

      This is a multi-perspective fictional piece set across British occupation, WWII, and Japanese occupation in Malaysia. The perspectives are all from the same family - the mother, her children (two girls and a boy). It's incredibly sad, heartbreaking.

      It reminded me of Do Not Say We Have Nothing, but different.

      Audiobook narrator: Samantha Tan

      I actually chose this book from the narrator. Listened to her before and really appreciate her lovely voice, she brings the book to life.
    • 5/5
      A gripping novel about the little known circumstances that prevailed in Malaya during WW2, told from the viewpoint of a family and it's personal journey of suffering, betrayal and final pale moment of wanly won peace. The message is clear. War destroys our world and all we know, breaks us and changes us irrevocably, but a glimmer of humanity shines through, a tiny flicker of salvationvdespite our best efforts at self destruction.

      1 person found this helpful