The Hand That First Held Mine by Maggie O'Farrell

Lexie Sinclair is plotting an extraordinary life for herself. Hedged in by her parents' genteel country life, she plans her escape to London. There, she takes up with Innes Kent, a magazine editor who wears duck-egg blue ties and introduces her to the thrilling, underground world of bohemian, post-war Soho. She learns to be a reporter, to know art and artists, to embrace her life fully and with a deep love at the center of it. She creates many lives--all of them unconventional. And when she finds herself pregnant, she doesn't hesitate to have the baby on her own. Later, in present-day London, a young painter named Elina dizzily navigates the first weeks of motherhood. She doesn't recognize herself: she finds herself walking outside with no shoes; she goes to the restaurant for lunch at nine in the morning; she can't recall the small matter of giving birth. But for her boyfriend, Ted, fatherhood is calling up lost memories, with images he cannot place. As Ted's memories become more disconcerting and more frequent, it seems that something might connect these two stories-- these two women-- something that becomes all the more heartbreaking and beautiful as they all hurtle toward its revelation. Here Maggie O'Farrell brings us a spellbinding novel of two women connected across fifty years by art, love, betrayals, secrets, and motherhood. Like her acclaimed The Vanishing Act of Esme Lennox, it is a "breathtaking, heart-breaking creation."* And it is a gorgeous inquiry into the ways we make and unmake our lives, who we know ourselves to be, and how even our most accidental legacies connect us. *The Washington Post Book World

- Google

The 2546th greatest fiction book of all time


This book is on the following lists:

  1. - Costa Book Award - Best Novel (Costa Coffee)

Buy This Book

Name Binding Sales Rank Lowest New Lowest Used Published
Maggie O'Farrell'sThe Hand That First Held Mine [Hardcover](2010) Hardcover 11138406 $16.09 $13.59
The Hand That First Held Mine Hardcover 812763 $7.10 $5.21 2010
The Hand That First Held Mine Audio CD 3015276 $3.58 $1.62 2010
Hand That First Held Mine Hardcover 11153229 $21.69 $0.01
[ { { The Hand That First Held Mine } } ] By O'Farrell, Maggie( Author ) on Jan-26-2011 [ Paperback ] Paperback 13539554 $35.15 $6.10 2011
La primera mano que sostuvo la mía (Libros del Asteroide nº 196) (Spanish Edition) Kindle Edition 1946524 $9.99 2018
The Hand That First Held Mine Paperback 5256436 $8.59 $0.01 2011
The Hand that First Held Mine (Library Edition) Audio CD 11022363 $40.00 $11.46 2010
The Hand That First Held Mine Paperback 237062 $7.67 $3.90 2011
La primera mano que sostuvo la mía (Spanish Edition) Paperback 8402981 $17.96 $17.60 2019
La primera mano que sostuvo la mía (Libros del Asteroide nº 196) (Spanish Edition) Kindle Edition 839089 2018
The Hand That First Held Mine Paperback 1131033 $3.90 $1.94 2011
The Hand That First Held Mine Hardcover 1050797 $28.75 $3.13 2010
The Hand That First Held Mine: A Novel Kindle Edition 40318 $14.49 2011