This Is Now By Ciara Geraghty

[amazon_link id=”1444738011″ target=”_blank” ][/amazon_link]’This Is Now’ is the latest book by Ciara Geraghty.

An ordinary day. An ordinary bank. An ordinary street in an ordinary town. Nothing ever happens, until, one day, a shocking robbery turns life upside down for five people: Cillian, a police detective, Martha, the woman he thought was the life of his life, Tobias, who came to Ireland after WWII and now lies in a coma, shot in the bank robbery,
Roman, the young Polish teenager who is suspected of pulling the trigger and his mother Rosa, the cleaner, who dreamed of a better life for herself and her son and things will never be ordinary again.

Ciara is back with a heartwarming new story, a tale of hope, love and moving on, this Irish tale set in Dublin and the wilds of Donegal made for enjoyable and tender reading.

The story is seen primarily through the eyes of Martha, a grumpy journalist, who is trying to stay away from alcohol as well as move on in life but that’s quite hard when her past suddenly turns up reminding her of what she could have had. Her past is Cillian Larkin, a handsome detective who has been called into investigate the bank robbery that Martha and her friend were caught up in. As she tries to move forward with her life, she struggles with the realisation that she may have lost the best thing that ever happened to her. Whilst young Roman, is on the run, after taking part in the robbery, hoping to provide a better life for him and his mother, a housekeeper to Tobias, an elderly man left in a coma after the bank robbery. He’s a kind and gentle man who moved to Ireland many years after Dresden with the intention of creating a new life but like Martha, his history keeps him from moving on and he spends his time remembering a woman from his past.

The story is cleverly written with a host of vibrant characters with strong personalities and issues that make for dramatic and mysterious reading. I particularly loved Martha and Cillian, the scenes with them I found particularly entertaining. Martha is a gruff and brash character, she isn’t afraid to tell people what she thinks, the only time we see a tender side to her, is when she’s with Cillian and his soft manner takes out a softer side to her. She’s witty with a quick tongue but relies on alcohol to help and is struggling without it, she feels guilty about the loss of her twin sister and is regularly belittled by her mother, but she manages to get through the day, helping her best friend deal with her sexuality. Even though Roman is only fourteen, he’s already playing the man of the house, wanting to help and provide his mother with security but when it goes drastically wrong, we see a young boy living in a strange country uncertain of his future. The scenes with Tobias are poignant ones, a lonely man, who is wrecked with memories of Dresden, but his mind is occupied with the thoughts of a young nurse who helped him and he later fell in love with.

The story is dark and gritty featuring issues of immigration and alcoholism, that was quite compelling reading. With each dark moment, there is a humorous injection, to lighten the mood of the tender tale. Thoroughly researched and sensitively written, ‘This Is Now’ is a beautiful story with relatable characters and a realistic storyline from one of Ireland’s favourite authors.

You can buy [amazon_link id=”1444738011″ target=”_blank” ]This is Now from Amazon [/amazon_link] and is available to buy from good bookshops.