Synopsis

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 Fuijwara lured her into a life of espionage, pursuing dreams of an “Asia for Asians.” Instead, Cecily helped usher in an even more brutal occupation by the Japanese. 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.

Review

What a heartbreaking story. The Storm We Made looks at a piece of history about which I was unfamiliar – the Japanese occupation of Malaya.

We meet Cecily, a mother with a hidden past, and her children Abel, Jujube and Jasmine. Each of these characters has a story to tell, and all have secrets.

It’s beautifully written in a dual timeline as we learn how Cecily risked her family for love when she was younger, and how that time may just catch up with her.

Meanwhile, her son Abel has vanished, sent to a work camp where boys are exploited and abused by the Japanese.

Despite the horrific events within the story, Chan manages to weave a beautiful narrative with vivid characters and profound messages of hope and forgiveness. It is still bleak, and the ending does not provide much respite from the gloom.

Cecily is extremely naive and the risks she takes are incredulous, but this shows how an infatuation can grow. Jasmine’s story is perhaps the least believable, but Chan brilliantly portrays the mind of a young girl and how she would feel in these situations. Jujube has a less interesting arc until it approaches its end, while Abel’s is dark and perhaps the saddest of them all.

What is fantastic is how gripping it is on audio – although I planned to read and listen, the audio was so engaging that I couldn’t stop listening to it. I read this just after returning from Malaysia and immediately looked up more about this period of history.

For a debut, this is outstanding, well-written, perfectly crafted and featuring characters that will stay with you long after you finish reading.

Thanks to Hodder & Stoughton for my proof copy. Opinions my own.