The Hand that First Held Mine

by Maggie O'Farrell

A gorgeously written story of love and motherhood, this is a tour de force from one of our best loved novelists.

When the sophisticated Innes Kent turns up on her doorstep, Lexie Sinclair realises she cannot wait any longer for her life to begin, and leaves for London. There, at the heart of the 1950s Soho art scene, she carves out a new life. In the present day, Elina and Ted are reeling from the difficult birth of their first child. Elina struggles to reconcile the demands of motherhood with sense of herself as an artist, and Ted is disturbed by memories of his own childhood that don't tally with his parents' version of events. As Ted begins to search for answers, an extraordinary portrait of two women is revealed, separated by fifty years, but connected in ways that neither could ever have expected.

(From Publisher).

Maggie O'Farrell is the author of five novels, After You'd Gone, My Lover's Lover, The Distance Between Us, which won a Somerset Maugham Award, The Vanishing Act of Esme Lennox and The Hand That First Held Mine. Born in Northern Ireland, Maggie grew up in Wales and Scotland. She lives in London with her husband and two children.

A great story with fantastic characterization. Hard to put down!

This book is very beautifully written, with poetic attention to detail. It has a strong emotional intensity and there is an underlying tension that builds as the story progresses. There are two storylines separated by about 50 years, and the link between the two is gradually revealed.