There's No Place Like Here

This is the first novel of Cecelia Ahern, an Irish novelist, that I've ever read. The original title is actually "A Place Called Here" but in US the novel's title is changed to the one up there. Actually, I don't quite understand why some names or titles of movies or books need to be changed in some countries. I can understand if the original title has already existed in another work published/produced prior to the later ones, but for some other cases, I don't quite get it. For example, Harry Potter and The Philosopher's Stone in UK became Harry Potter and The Sorcerer's Stone in US. Anyone care to explain?...

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From the novel's back cover,

Since Sandy Shortt's childhood classmate disappeared twenty years ago, Sandy has been obsessed with missing things. Finding what is lost becomes her single-minded goal - whether it's a sock that vanished in the washing machine, the car keys she misplaced, or the graver issue of finding people who vanished from their loved ones. Sandy dedicates her work to finding these missing people, offering devastated families a flicker of hope.

Jack ruttle is one of those desperate people. It's been a year since his brother Donal vanished into thin air, and he thinks Sandy Shortt could well be the answer to his prayers. but when Sandy goes missing too, she stumbles upon the place - and people - she's been looking for all her life. A world away from her loved ones and the home she ran for so long, Sandy soon resorts to her old habit again, searching. This time though, she is desperately trying to find her way home....

What I like about this story is the element of mystery in it. As the synopsis reveals, I wonder just where all the lost things go and why did they get missing? Why everything started to happen after the missing of Sandy's classmate, who's not actually being kind to Sandy during their childhood years. Sandy is a unique character who has this obsessive and compulsive behavior of finding missing things no matter what it takes or costs. She makes every case as her mission and doggedly pursue her missions until she could find no more. She is the most detached person I've ever met in a novel, always distancing herself from others, even her parents yet close to the people who seek her help in finding their missing loved ones.

And then there's 'Here'...where things took a mysterious turn. As the story goes along, we are following Sandy and Jack's journey to reveal the mystery. And in their journey, they find themselves.

A good read. Enjoy.