Amazon.com

Acclaimed novelist Cecelia Ahern's There's No Place Like Here tells the story of Sandy Shortt, an obsessive-compulsive Missing Persons investigator who suddenly finds herself in the mystical land of the missing, desperate to return to the people and places from whom she has spent her life escaping. With this imaginative fourth novel, Ahern, whose P.S. I Love You was made into a major motion picture, continues to establish herself as not only an icon of Irish chick lit, but also a bold and creative thinker.

Continuing the whimsical trend she started with If You Could See Me Now, Ahern asks readers to step outside the boundaries of reality, and enter a world where missing people (and possessions) from all over the globe congregate to start anew. When Sandy goes on an early morning jog and strays too far into the forest, she too finds herself "Here," the aptly named home of the missing. In addition to finding her lost socks, diaries, and stuffed animals, she also finds many of the people she has searched for throughout her career. From Bobby Stanley, who disappeared from his mother's house at the age of sixteen, to Terrence O'Malley, a librarian who disappeared on his way home from work at age 55, Sandy is quickly reunited with the people she has come to know only through photos and heartbreaking memories shared by devastated loved ones who enlisted her services. Of course, finding these people and possessions only makes Sandy realize how much she has missed out on in her real life, most notably her concerned parents and her on again off again boyfriend Greg.

There's No Place Like Here is often predictable and the premise is a bit hard to swallow at times. Still, readers who take the leap will be rewarded with what is ultimately a witty, compassionate, and captivating love story. --Gisele Toueg

Genial, phantasievoll, wunderschön!! (5. Juni 2008)

Ich hab das Buch gerade durch. Leider!! Es hätte ruhig noch ein bisschen länger sein dürfen. Die Geschichte ist einfach toll und wunderschön geschrieben. Ich bin froh, dass das Ganze kein kitschiger Liebes- bzw. Romantikroman ist!
Gekauft hatte ich "A Place Called Here" eigentlich nur wegen des tollen Covers. Wer nicht ganz phantasielos ist und keine Liebesschnulze lesen möchte aber trotzdem gern ein Buch mit "Gefühlen" liest, dem kann ich dieses Buch auf jeden Fall empfehlen!

Absolut empfehlenswert! (6. März 2008)

Hat sich nicht jeder schon einmal die Frage gestellt, wieso man immer nur eine Socke findet oder sich die Haare gerauft, um diesen ganz bestimmten Gegenstand zu finden, den man gerade noch in der Hand hatte?

Die Hauptfigur Sandy Shortt hat einen Hang dazu, persönliche Dinge zu verlieren. Die Suche nach diesen Dingen führt sie in einen Beruf, der kein wirkliches Privatleben zulässt, verhilft ihr zu einem besonderen Leben und zu einer außergewöhnlichen Erfahrung.

Kurweilig, fesselnd und überraschend! Da bekommt der Job in einem Fundbüro ganz neue Qualitäten!

wasted money!! (6. September 2007)

I read all the other reviews before purchasing this book but didn't quite want to believe them - I'd enjoyed all those other Cecelia Ahern-books too much. But let me tell you, this book really is hugely disappointing.

Nobody quite knows where to place it or what it really wants to be - maybe that's why the publisher resorted to the slogan "Anything's possible with Cecelia Ahern." Quite so! It's a bit of a criminal story, but without much "who dunnit"; it's a bit of a romance, but without happy ending; and it's somewhat dark and depressing, but without offering any comfort or even philosophy in there. Maybe it's best described as a mystery, mainly in the sense that it's a mystery to me why any publisher would ever accepted such a work.

The book does have a plot, but it too makes very little sense: Things and people keep disappearing and (sometimes) reappearing, but without any underlying pattern to it. Even Cecelia's wit and humour has disappeared and, sadly, never reappears throughout the entire book. I've read many of her other books and was extraordinarily disappointed by this unusually dry and uninspired style. Consider yourself enchanted and well-entertained if you manage a small chuckle every 15 or 20 pages.

Finally, and this is the saddest part, Ms. Ahern didn't even manage a decent ending. The last 20 pages read exactly as if she'd thought: "Oh darn, I've GOT to finish this book before dinner... okay, still 5 minutes to go, I can do it!" Some loose ends are kinda wrapped up, but in the most dilettante manner: A miracle happens, and everybody is happy again. Wow. A lot of other things, however, remain entirely unsolved. It's not even an open ending, which I would greatly appreciate; it's more like a wanna-be happy ending that was abruptly interrupted by the ringing egg timer. "C'mon, Cecelia, dinner's ready!"

I will give this book two stars because Cecelia (or her editors) didn't include too many typos and it's not exactly a bad book. It's just not good either, and certainly not as excellent as all of her other works. If you're looking for a way to waste time other than watching dumb TV shows, this may be for you. If you're looking for 485 pages of paper you can flip while pretending to read, this is a good one. If you intend to have fun, or enjoy a plot that actually makes sense, or want to draw some "food for thought" from the pages, or all of these together - then be advised that you're looking at the wrong book.

In diesem Buch kann mann verschwinden... (23. Juli 2007)

Ich musste mich ganz bewusst zwingen das Buch wegzulegen, besonders gegen Ende. Es hat mich total gefangen und in seinen Bann gezogen. Kann die schlechten Kritiken nicht nachvollziehen. Vielleicht ist es auch so ein Buch was man entweder komplett liebt oder eben nicht versteht und dann hasst.
Der Schreibstil im Englischen war auch wieder gut zu verstehen. War jetzt mein zweites Buch der Autorin und das nächste liegt schon da...

Eine Enttäuschung. (12. Januar 2007)

Ich muss sagen, ich habe mir das neue Buch von Cecelia Ahern sofort gekauft, in freudiger Erwartung auf ein weiteres Buch ihrer schönen Reihe.
Trotzdem war das Buch ziemlich langweilig und sehr anders als ihre anderen Bücher - kein bisschen romantisch, komisch oder traurig.
Eine Geschichte die einfach da ist, würde ich sagen, aber die keine weitere Bedeutung hat.
Einziger toller Teil: Der Ort "Here" regt den Leser an selbst nachzudenken, was von ihm am Ort "Here" sein könnte. Guter Gesprächsstoff -
Sonst aber nur ausreichend. Schade!

Linda