We Are All Made of Stars

We Are All Made of Stars by Rowan Coleman

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


Stella is a nurse, working the night shift at a hospice which often means seeing her patients and their families through death and out the other side. Writing letters from the dying to their loved ones is a task Stella has devised to help the dying put their final thoughts to bed and it takes Stella's mind off difficulties at home because, although she can help the people she nurses and their families, Stella is failing to help her husband, an ex soldier suffering PTSD and the strain on their marriage is becoming too much for Stella to bear.
Hope has her own set of problems. Having cystic fibrosis means being careful, having people being careful around you and basically, living with the concept of death. Hope longs to be a normal 21 year old, having fun without fear, having a boyfriend....and there's the night she nearly died, when her best friend Ben kissed her...what was all that about?
And then there's Hugh, a single man with a cat called Jake who finds himself inadvertently becoming involved in the lives of the single mum next door and her son, no matter how much he wants and tries to keep himself to himself. The loss of his own mother at 10 has made Hugh a loner, and getting close to anyone is not really on his agenda.
A story about love and death and everything in between, this is one of Rowan Coleman's most poignant yet breathtaking novels. Superb writing that depicts her characters so perfectly that they appear as real people and the real-life problems she writes about are realistic, obviously well researched and heartfelt. It is a serious novel dealing with cancer and death; living with someone you love who is determined to push you away because of his own suffering; living with the repercussions of a loved ones actions that affect your own life many years later; but throughout there is an element of dry humour and the letters written by Stella for her patients add a sentimental and touching aspect to the novel as a whole. The way Rowan deals with death in this book is moving, she is sympathetic but realistic and has the ethos of hospices just right. Although as a reader, you feel the pain of those who have lost a loved one, you also feel there is a way forward for those characters.
It's a novel that makes you think about love and friendship, life and death. It makes you think about making the most of living.
I am positive that whoever reads this novel, following Stella, Hugh and Hope through their problems and watching them come out the other side, will love it. It's a novel which makes you feel you have gone through the experiences with the characters and which by the end, made me feel quite emotionally wrung out but in a good way. Life is full of set backs and sadness but Rowan Coleman has shown through her characters that there is always some good to come from bad and also, has shown the power there is in a simple letter. Throughout the novel, we get to read the letters Stella writes for her patients and they are a joy to read, a comfort, funny, poignant. It is an amazing work and one which must surely touch every emotion in the reader.

Thanks to Netgalley and Penguin Random House for the ARC of this book.