The Storm We Made
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Synopsis
A novel about a Malayan mother who becomes an unlikely spy for the invading Japanese forces during WWII—and the shocking consequences that rain upon her community and family.
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.
Synopsis source: Goodreads
Review
Genre(s): Historical Fiction, Fiction, World War II, Malaysia
HB&W Rating: 4 stars
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I’m always grateful for books that offer different perspectives on topics that are oversaturated with only one or two others. World War II books are often told from the allied powers’ perspectives, but there were so many countries involved and so many perspectives within them that need to be told, too. Thankfully, The Storm We Made is one of them, focusing on the country now known as Malaysia in two different timelines, when it was under the colonial rule of the British and when it was under Japanese occupation during WWII.
During WWII, under the promise of an “Asia for Asians,” the Japanese were able to thwart British rule in Malaya, goin on to become even worse oppressors, proving once again that the idea of a “benevolent colonizer” is nonexistent. Cecily was convinced of the future promised by the Japanese, so she fought for those ideals and what she believed to be right. Little did she know that her good intentions and fight for right would go so wrong, becoming the perfect storm that destroys everything in its path: her husband, children, best friend, herself.
This story has everything you would expect of a story taking place during wartime. It touches on colonization, racism, sexism, exploitation and slave labor both physical and sexual, assault (again, physical and sexual), alcoholism, and more. Most of the violence is referred to peripherally off-page and if directly on-page, in limited detail, but it’s no less heart-wrenching. All of this is hard enough, but add in the pain this family caused to each other as a result and you find yourself aching for these people, wondering if it’s possible to truly heal from everything they’ve endured.
I kept thinking about the letter from the author at the beginning of the book as I read the story, how circumspect the author described the lessons her grandmother had learned throughout the war. It further drove home the point that while this is fiction, it is based on the real experiences of people whose stories deserve to be told.
The Storm We Made is heart-breaking and poignant. It reminds us that war costs us our innocence, our scruples, and sometimes our very souls. In short, it costs us everything.
Until next time,
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