Roar

"ROAR is a wild and daring collection. The stories are ingenious and surreal, brilliantly and hilariously articulating what it means to be a woman today. Cecelia Ahern has crafted something of a revolution within these pages. A powerful must-read."

"These provocative and witty stories prove it's time to recognize Cecelia Ahern as one of our finest writers."

"An empowering book for women, Cecelia Ahern uses wildly inventive stories to reveal a simple truth - the power to create the life we want to live has been inside each of us all along. The world Ahern creates on these pages is fantastic yet authentic. Every woman will recognize herself in these stories and be inspired by them."

"Curiously delightful...each story resonate[s] as simultaneously personal and universal...A sharp, breathtaking collection."

"Fantastic...Ahern (P.S., I Love You) blends magical realism with keen observations about contemporary gender dynamics, offering readers a sharp selection of nuanced parables encouraging bravery, compassion, and self-reliance."

"This collection includes 30 stories, ranging from four to seven pages. Each satirical selection varies in tone from whimsical to humorous to provocative...Some stories are surprisingly realistic; others are allegorical fables or surreal futuristic statements...Bold, imaginative, eclectic sketches feature women at the crossroads. Their resilience when faced with hardship and their methods of overcoming obstacles help to create a thoroughly challenging, pertinent, and ultimately uplifting read."

"Ahern's previous work, including PS, I Love You, There's No Place Like Here and The Gift are funny, light and often wise but didn't entirely presage "Roar," which is funny, wise and weighty - in a very good way. After all, when you write 30 stories about the dilemmas of people who hold up half the world's sky, things are bound to get heavy. The women in these fables cope with discrimination, loneliness and abandonment, among other things . . . It's best to read just one or two of Ahern's fables at a time. That way you can truly appreciate their wit, pathos and imagination. The author includes Helen Reddy's famous lyric 'I am woman, hear me roar' as an epigraph, but she might just as easily have used 'I'm every woman. It's all in me.'"

"This is insightful feminist fiction that is highly entertaining . . . Cecelia Ahern shows that women's reality is shaped not only by how others perceive them but also how they perceive the power to take control of their lives. We must hear these women who roar."

"Bedtime stories for feminists . . . contain wisdom, humor and warning . . . Roar offers respite for the woman who was stressed by modern life."