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Fiction. Literature. Historical Fiction. HTML: 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 W… (more)
User reviews
LibraryThing member karieh
“The Hand that First Held Mine”. It feels as if a hand has taken yours as you start reading. As if you are being gently led into a new world. You are directed where to look, introduced to people as they enter the story. Given help as you adjust to this new place...are birthed into this book.
I
“But this is anticipating. The film needs to be rewound a little. Watch. Innes sucks in a nimbus of smoke, lifts a cigarette stub from the ashtray, he appears to envelop Lexie in a shirt and push her across the room, the pillows jump onto the bed, Lexie zooms backwards towards the window.”
I was a bit unsure where this book was going...who the focus of the book would be. What the focus would be. Was this a story about the cataclysmic change that happens as one becomes a mother? Was this a story about madness? Were we being brought slowly behind the scenes of a mystery? Or was it a story about parents and children and that special kind of love?
“Elina and the baby walk together to the window. They don't take their eyes off each other. He blinks a little in the bright light but stared up at her, as if the sight of her to him is like water to a plant. Elina leans against the windows to the garden. She raises the baby so that his forehead touches her cheek, as if anointing him or greeting him, as if thy are starting all the way back at the beginning.”
I was enjoying the story, I was interested in the characters...but I wasn't engrossed in the book. And then...I put it down for a week. I read two other books...and then came back to “The Hand that First Held Mine”...and I was hooked. Something about the story had changed, or I'd been wondering about the characters...and I inhaled the last third of the book.
Something about this story of couples and parents in two different time periods but in the same places had worked on my imagination. I had to know what happened...both in the future and in the past. I'd grown accustomed to the rhythm of their lives and the scenery of their world and had to have more.
“He feels for a moment the vastness of the city, the whole breathing breadth of it and he feels as if he and this girl, this woman, are sitting together in its very centre, at the very eye of its storm, and he feels as if they might be the only people who are doing this, who have ever done this.”
I can't explain what grabbed me at the end of this book, I can only say that I almost couldn't turn the pages fast enough. I had to know how all of these lives tied into one another...what might have happened in one character's past to determine another character's future. I had to experience what they did...yet in some cases I already had.
“So, she thinks to herself, no walk for you today. And she must sit here for however long he sleeps. Which isn't the worst thing in the world, is it? But for a moment it seems to Elina that it is. She has such an urge, such an ache to go out, to see something other than the interior walls of this house, to apprehend the world, to move about in it. Sometimes she finds herself eying Ted when he has come in from work, when the life of the city still seems to cling to him. She sometimes wants to stand near to him, to sniff him, to catch the scent of it. She wants, desperately, to be somewhere else – anywhere else.”
Ulitmately, I think this story is about the ferocity of love. Specifically the love between a mother and a child. The bond that exists between them – an invisible, nearly unbreakable bond. A bond that is magical, and terrifying and inexplicable. There is beauty in this story, beauty in words and action and descriptions. But none was more beautiful for me than the story about that bond.
“The women we become after children...We lose muscle tone, sleep, reason, perspective. Our hearts begin to live outside our bodies. They breathe, they eat, they crawl and – look! - they walk, they begin to speak to us. We learn that we must sometimes walk an inch at a time, to stop and examine every stick, every stone, every squished can along the way. We get used to not getting where we were going...We get used to living with a love that suffuses us, suffocates us, blinds us, controls us. We live.”
I
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liked this narrative tool – like the scene direction that the reader is given by the author. It gives a certain texture to the words that made the actions even more visual, a movie that unfolds before us...or rewinds in front of our eyes.“But this is anticipating. The film needs to be rewound a little. Watch. Innes sucks in a nimbus of smoke, lifts a cigarette stub from the ashtray, he appears to envelop Lexie in a shirt and push her across the room, the pillows jump onto the bed, Lexie zooms backwards towards the window.”
I was a bit unsure where this book was going...who the focus of the book would be. What the focus would be. Was this a story about the cataclysmic change that happens as one becomes a mother? Was this a story about madness? Were we being brought slowly behind the scenes of a mystery? Or was it a story about parents and children and that special kind of love?
“Elina and the baby walk together to the window. They don't take their eyes off each other. He blinks a little in the bright light but stared up at her, as if the sight of her to him is like water to a plant. Elina leans against the windows to the garden. She raises the baby so that his forehead touches her cheek, as if anointing him or greeting him, as if thy are starting all the way back at the beginning.”
I was enjoying the story, I was interested in the characters...but I wasn't engrossed in the book. And then...I put it down for a week. I read two other books...and then came back to “The Hand that First Held Mine”...and I was hooked. Something about the story had changed, or I'd been wondering about the characters...and I inhaled the last third of the book.
Something about this story of couples and parents in two different time periods but in the same places had worked on my imagination. I had to know what happened...both in the future and in the past. I'd grown accustomed to the rhythm of their lives and the scenery of their world and had to have more.
“He feels for a moment the vastness of the city, the whole breathing breadth of it and he feels as if he and this girl, this woman, are sitting together in its very centre, at the very eye of its storm, and he feels as if they might be the only people who are doing this, who have ever done this.”
I can't explain what grabbed me at the end of this book, I can only say that I almost couldn't turn the pages fast enough. I had to know how all of these lives tied into one another...what might have happened in one character's past to determine another character's future. I had to experience what they did...yet in some cases I already had.
“So, she thinks to herself, no walk for you today. And she must sit here for however long he sleeps. Which isn't the worst thing in the world, is it? But for a moment it seems to Elina that it is. She has such an urge, such an ache to go out, to see something other than the interior walls of this house, to apprehend the world, to move about in it. Sometimes she finds herself eying Ted when he has come in from work, when the life of the city still seems to cling to him. She sometimes wants to stand near to him, to sniff him, to catch the scent of it. She wants, desperately, to be somewhere else – anywhere else.”
Ulitmately, I think this story is about the ferocity of love. Specifically the love between a mother and a child. The bond that exists between them – an invisible, nearly unbreakable bond. A bond that is magical, and terrifying and inexplicable. There is beauty in this story, beauty in words and action and descriptions. But none was more beautiful for me than the story about that bond.
“The women we become after children...We lose muscle tone, sleep, reason, perspective. Our hearts begin to live outside our bodies. They breathe, they eat, they crawl and – look! - they walk, they begin to speak to us. We learn that we must sometimes walk an inch at a time, to stop and examine every stick, every stone, every squished can along the way. We get used to not getting where we were going...We get used to living with a love that suffuses us, suffocates us, blinds us, controls us. We live.”
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LibraryThing member nicx27
Having loved The Vanishing Act of Esme Lennox, I was really looking forward to reading the new Maggie O'Farrell book. The Hand That First Held Mine is a beautifully written book and is very evocative. The author really drew me into the story and the characters' lives and described things in such a
There are two stories in the book. The first is the story of Lexie Sinclair, my favourite character. She becomes an independent career woman in the late 1950s and 1960s in Soho. The second story is that of Ted and Elina, and their new baby, and how they cope with him and also Ted's memories, or lack of them. The stories appear completely unrelated for much of the book but the reader always knows that they are somehow related. I loved the two strands and thought that they worked together very well, both separately and once the link became apparent.
I cried in more than one place in the book, and at one point was desperate to exclaim out loud, but I was on a bus at the time. An absolutely lovely read and I look forward to finding out what Maggie O'Farrell's next book will be about.
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lovely way. There are two stories in the book. The first is the story of Lexie Sinclair, my favourite character. She becomes an independent career woman in the late 1950s and 1960s in Soho. The second story is that of Ted and Elina, and their new baby, and how they cope with him and also Ted's memories, or lack of them. The stories appear completely unrelated for much of the book but the reader always knows that they are somehow related. I loved the two strands and thought that they worked together very well, both separately and once the link became apparent.
I cried in more than one place in the book, and at one point was desperate to exclaim out loud, but I was on a bus at the time. An absolutely lovely read and I look forward to finding out what Maggie O'Farrell's next book will be about.
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LibraryThing member bookchickdi
I read Maggie O'Farrell's novel The Vanishing Act of Esme Lennox a few years back and found it a haunting story. I looked forward to reading her next book, The Hand That First Held Mine.
It's not a book that grabbed me right away, but I'm glad I stuck with it because the resolution of the story was
The story alternates between Lexie, a young girl who leaves her family in the country to move to the big city after she meets a mysterious older man on the road outside her house. Innes Kent becomes her lover and mentor as she works for his magazine. Innes is married, but that doesn't stop them.
Years later we met Ted and Elina. Elina has just gone through a traumatic birth, losing four pints of blood in the process. She has a difficult time caring for the baby, but Ted must go back to work as an editor. He worries about Elina and the baby, and then he begins to have blackouts. The birth of his child has triggered something in him, something he has repressed.
Ted tries to put together what happened in his childhood that could be causing his troubles today. He remembers a lovely woman holding his hand, but it isn't the hand of his mother, who is a cold woman. As Ted tries to put the pieces together, the story lines meet.
O'Farrell is a marvelous story teller, and one passage just flat-out knocked me out. A mother, upon knowing she is drowning and will not see her young son grow thinks,
"She would not see him grow as tall as her then taller. She would not be there when someone first broke his heart or when he first drove a car or when he went out alone into the world or when he saw, for the first time, what he would do, how he would love and with whom and where. She would not be there to knock sand out of his shoes when he came off the beach. She would not see him again."
As a mother, those words just devastated me. It is every mother's nightmare.
I liked the character growth of Lexie, and that surprised me as I didn't like her at first. I also enjoyed that I didn't see where this book would end up, that is unusual for me, and I think that shows the skill of the author.
It's not a book that grabbed me right away, but I'm glad I stuck with it because the resolution of the story was
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heartbreaking. O'Farrell expertly weaves two stories together, and I didn't know where she going with it until about three quarters of the way through, and then I was devastated.The story alternates between Lexie, a young girl who leaves her family in the country to move to the big city after she meets a mysterious older man on the road outside her house. Innes Kent becomes her lover and mentor as she works for his magazine. Innes is married, but that doesn't stop them.
Years later we met Ted and Elina. Elina has just gone through a traumatic birth, losing four pints of blood in the process. She has a difficult time caring for the baby, but Ted must go back to work as an editor. He worries about Elina and the baby, and then he begins to have blackouts. The birth of his child has triggered something in him, something he has repressed.
Ted tries to put together what happened in his childhood that could be causing his troubles today. He remembers a lovely woman holding his hand, but it isn't the hand of his mother, who is a cold woman. As Ted tries to put the pieces together, the story lines meet.
O'Farrell is a marvelous story teller, and one passage just flat-out knocked me out. A mother, upon knowing she is drowning and will not see her young son grow thinks,
"She would not see him grow as tall as her then taller. She would not be there when someone first broke his heart or when he first drove a car or when he went out alone into the world or when he saw, for the first time, what he would do, how he would love and with whom and where. She would not be there to knock sand out of his shoes when he came off the beach. She would not see him again."
As a mother, those words just devastated me. It is every mother's nightmare.
I liked the character growth of Lexie, and that surprised me as I didn't like her at first. I also enjoyed that I didn't see where this book would end up, that is unusual for me, and I think that shows the skill of the author.
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LibraryThing member LiterateHousewife
Post-Partum issues have been all over my reading lately. Although her children were older, April from Revolutionary Road clearly had issues. Elina from The Hand that First Held Mine does as well. We first meet Elina in bed at home with Ted upset that their baby was gone. While Ted misunderstood her
Lexie’s story is a rebelliously fun ride through London’s Soho district during it’s Bohemian days. Lexie had the spunk to renounce the life of her parents and take off for the big city in a time when “good girls” didn’t go anywhere or do much of anything by themselves. She was a free spirit who experienced the misfortune of loving and being loved by an unhappily married man. Her sections of the novel were filled with art determination. As much as I found a kindred spirit in Elina, I had fun with Lexie and when the links between their two stories began to emerge, it was very satisfying.
I have always wanted to read Maggie O’Farrell’s The Vanishing Act of Esme Lennox. I hadn’t, and that was why I agreed to read this novel when asked by her publicist. I didn’t want O’Farrell to drop off my radar. She most definitely will not. Not only did I enjoy her story telling, her writing enhanced it. Although I would caution those readers currently experiencing Post-Partum Depression or those who still become uncomfortable reading about it, I highly recommend The Hand That First Held Mine. It’s a vivid story of motherhood that honors the whole woman.
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to mean that someone had taken the baby from their home, Elina meant that the baby was missing from her womb. She could not remember giving birth to their son at all. That was just the beginning of the issues she encountered as a woman approaching new motherhood after a difficult, nearly fatal, birth. Couple her reality with Ted’s growing sense that something isn’t right with himself and it’s enough to put anyone on edge. While her experiences and mine were different, I felt so close to her because I understood exactly what she was going through. In fact, there was one similarity between her baby and mine that I reread the section to make sure I wasn’t inserting my own experience into Elina’s. I hadn’t been and, unlike earlier reading, this comforted me instead of making me anxious. This novel validated my life experience in that way.Lexie’s story is a rebelliously fun ride through London’s Soho district during it’s Bohemian days. Lexie had the spunk to renounce the life of her parents and take off for the big city in a time when “good girls” didn’t go anywhere or do much of anything by themselves. She was a free spirit who experienced the misfortune of loving and being loved by an unhappily married man. Her sections of the novel were filled with art determination. As much as I found a kindred spirit in Elina, I had fun with Lexie and when the links between their two stories began to emerge, it was very satisfying.
I have always wanted to read Maggie O’Farrell’s The Vanishing Act of Esme Lennox. I hadn’t, and that was why I agreed to read this novel when asked by her publicist. I didn’t want O’Farrell to drop off my radar. She most definitely will not. Not only did I enjoy her story telling, her writing enhanced it. Although I would caution those readers currently experiencing Post-Partum Depression or those who still become uncomfortable reading about it, I highly recommend The Hand That First Held Mine. It’s a vivid story of motherhood that honors the whole woman.
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LibraryThing member ccayne
I love O'Farrell and this book didn't disappoint. Not only does she write well but she creates a wonderful story with compelling characters and a bit of mystery. The focus is just on particular events in the lives of each character and there is no development beyond that. Most of O'Farrell's work
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revolves around hidden identity and I knew that is where this was headed and I thoroughly enjoyed the journey. Show Less
LibraryThing member michelle_bcf
This is the fifth book by Maggie O’Farrell, one of my favourite authors, and it certainly didn’t disappoint. Everything seemed captivating in this book, characters, storyline and writing.
The story begins in the mid 1950′s, with a twenty one year old Lexie in rural Devon. After an encounter
Alongside this, we are introduced to Ted and Elina, set in the present day. We are thrown straight into the Elina’s struggles with motherhood, as she experiences strange memory losses over the birth. At the same time, Ted is dealing with his own issues, as his childhood memories seem different to the version his parents hold.
As both stories unravel, it’s apparent that a connection is to be expected. However, it may not be quite what you expect.
The 1950′s setting was the one I enjoyed the most, as it’s so easy to imagine yourself there. I also found Lexie and Innes to be my favourite characters – both as a couple, and also in their own right. Lexie’s character in particular is allowed to grow and evolve, and we follow every step with her – sharing in joys and sorrows.
The connection at the end is rewarding, the characters find their way into your mind and settle there, and the writing is a joy to read. What else can I say – read it!
The story begins in the mid 1950′s, with a twenty one year old Lexie in rural Devon. After an encounter
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with Innes Kent, she decides to move to London, where she meets him again. Their romance develops as they try to live and survive in Soho, dealing with the past which Innes brings.Alongside this, we are introduced to Ted and Elina, set in the present day. We are thrown straight into the Elina’s struggles with motherhood, as she experiences strange memory losses over the birth. At the same time, Ted is dealing with his own issues, as his childhood memories seem different to the version his parents hold.
As both stories unravel, it’s apparent that a connection is to be expected. However, it may not be quite what you expect.
The 1950′s setting was the one I enjoyed the most, as it’s so easy to imagine yourself there. I also found Lexie and Innes to be my favourite characters – both as a couple, and also in their own right. Lexie’s character in particular is allowed to grow and evolve, and we follow every step with her – sharing in joys and sorrows.
The connection at the end is rewarding, the characters find their way into your mind and settle there, and the writing is a joy to read. What else can I say – read it!
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LibraryThing member ReadingHabit
I'm going to get straight to the point here and announce that I was pretty underwhelmed by 'The Hand That First Held Mine'. After rave reviews by members of my book club of O'Farrell's earlier novel 'The Vanishing Act of Esme Lennox', I was really excited to sink my teeth into the work of a new
The book is at once the story of young Lexie Sinclair and her short but bright life in 1950s Soho with the flamboyant Innes Kent, and the story of present day couple, Elina and Ted, grappling with the birth of their first child. Right from the beginning we know that somehow these two stories are intertwined. We flit and float between these four characters and their support cast as O'Farrell gradually feeds us the clues that link these two stories together, until the bombshell is inevitably dropped at the end.
The story itself is relatively fluid, but I could sense the author working at trying to deceive us. For example, we never know what really happened to Elina when giving birth and I wonder whether the author only includes her post-partum depression to throw us off the scent. As a result, there are a few loose ends by the books conclusion.
But it's the blend of story and character that really made this book a chore for me. From the very beginning of the novel I felt detached from the characters, as if I was gazing on them from afar, with little concern or care. Maybe this was the author's intention as Lexie, Innes, Elina and Ted all become detached from the world and their loved ones in some way or another throughout the course of the book. But, if it was the author's intention, it certainly didn't endear me to them or the story. This detachment juxtaposed with the connections the book is trying to make between characters spread 50 years apart is a contradiction that left me feeling a little confused.
The predominant theme of the book is motherhood and it's this that links the stories of Elina and Lexie. O'Farrell uses the time settings to identify both the similarities and differences of motherhood over the generations. I read one review that described the book as an ode to motherhood and I'd have to agree. The one strength of the book is O'Farrells understanding of a mother's love in all it's guises and permutations. However, this doesn't save the book for me. The book explores motherhood among other common themes including love, betrayal, revenge and loss, but there's nothing new here, not even in the delivery.
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author. This excitement soon dwindled as it took me six weeks to struggle through the books uninspiring 341 pages. The book is at once the story of young Lexie Sinclair and her short but bright life in 1950s Soho with the flamboyant Innes Kent, and the story of present day couple, Elina and Ted, grappling with the birth of their first child. Right from the beginning we know that somehow these two stories are intertwined. We flit and float between these four characters and their support cast as O'Farrell gradually feeds us the clues that link these two stories together, until the bombshell is inevitably dropped at the end.
The story itself is relatively fluid, but I could sense the author working at trying to deceive us. For example, we never know what really happened to Elina when giving birth and I wonder whether the author only includes her post-partum depression to throw us off the scent. As a result, there are a few loose ends by the books conclusion.
But it's the blend of story and character that really made this book a chore for me. From the very beginning of the novel I felt detached from the characters, as if I was gazing on them from afar, with little concern or care. Maybe this was the author's intention as Lexie, Innes, Elina and Ted all become detached from the world and their loved ones in some way or another throughout the course of the book. But, if it was the author's intention, it certainly didn't endear me to them or the story. This detachment juxtaposed with the connections the book is trying to make between characters spread 50 years apart is a contradiction that left me feeling a little confused.
The predominant theme of the book is motherhood and it's this that links the stories of Elina and Lexie. O'Farrell uses the time settings to identify both the similarities and differences of motherhood over the generations. I read one review that described the book as an ode to motherhood and I'd have to agree. The one strength of the book is O'Farrells understanding of a mother's love in all it's guises and permutations. However, this doesn't save the book for me. The book explores motherhood among other common themes including love, betrayal, revenge and loss, but there's nothing new here, not even in the delivery.
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LibraryThing member tixylix
I changed my mind about this book half way through. Having read Maggie O'Farrell's previous books, I was expecting a novel which would satisfy my requirement for an easy read, something to take my mind off work and other things in my life. The start of the book ticked these boxes, but I didn't
Then the second half of the book began to seep into my consciousness a bit more. Tragedies and looming trauma beckoned and the connections in the plot began to match up, making me want to read more. The thread of motherhood runs through this book and really spoke to me. I'm not a parent, but I guess I'm reaching the age where I'm starting to think about becoming one, and so the pain of several of the characters really got to me.
In summary, an affecting read masquerading as chick lit, to some extent, and worth wading through the idealistic early London scenes (fun though they are) to get to the real meat of the story.
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connect with the characters. The main characters, Lexie and Elina, were too perfect (despite their problems) for me to identify with and I let the stories wash over me. Not at all unpleasant but not very affecting.Then the second half of the book began to seep into my consciousness a bit more. Tragedies and looming trauma beckoned and the connections in the plot began to match up, making me want to read more. The thread of motherhood runs through this book and really spoke to me. I'm not a parent, but I guess I'm reaching the age where I'm starting to think about becoming one, and so the pain of several of the characters really got to me.
In summary, an affecting read masquerading as chick lit, to some extent, and worth wading through the idealistic early London scenes (fun though they are) to get to the real meat of the story.
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LibraryThing member Den282
This was my first time reading Maggie O'Farrell. To be honest, at first I wasn't sure I was going to enjoy this book. I am so happy that I stuck with it through the first few chapters because it is one of the most enjoyable books I've read. The author alternates between the story lines of Lexie and
I won't give away the storyline, but suffice it to say I became very engaged in both sets of stories which culminate in a dramatic conclusion which broke my heart. I highly recommend this read and will definitely check out other Maggie O'Farrell novels.
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Innes and Ted and Elina. We go back and forth in time, following these two couples through several years of their lives. Lexie Sinclair leaves home as a young woman, determined to break away from her stifling household and parents. She goes to London to follow a mysterious man she has met only once. Innes Kent becomes Lexie's lover and also starts her on her career as a journalist. Alternately, we follow Ted and Elina as they experience parenthood for the first time. After a very dangerous, life-threatening birth experience Elina is struggling to recover from childbirth and Ted starts having strange flashbacks to his childhood. The author so accurately and honestly captures the overwhelming, exhausting sensation of new motherhood. She doesn't sugarcoat it, and manages to capture both the eclipsing love and the excrutiating tireness a new mother feels simultaneously. I won't give away the storyline, but suffice it to say I became very engaged in both sets of stories which culminate in a dramatic conclusion which broke my heart. I highly recommend this read and will definitely check out other Maggie O'Farrell novels.
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LibraryThing member KristySP
I loved this book. Loved. it. When I was pregnant with Leo, and then, after I gave birth, I searched for books that would reflect the strange, often overwhelming experience I was having as a new mother. O'Farrell's novel explores both the shaky first months of taking care of a newborn, as well as
Themes of motherhood are played out over the backdrop of bohemian post war London and modern day London in two different narratives that intersect by the story's end. Two mothers, both fiercely independent and artistically minded are a pure delight to read about.
A great read.
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the immensely satisfying and quirky aspects of life with a toddler. She captures the love and fear, the drudgery and the boredom, the comical and the disastrous. Themes of motherhood are played out over the backdrop of bohemian post war London and modern day London in two different narratives that intersect by the story's end. Two mothers, both fiercely independent and artistically minded are a pure delight to read about.
A great read.
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LibraryThing member DubaiReader
Beautifully written, my favourite book so far this year.
I first discovered Maggie O'Farrell when I read and enjoyed After You'd Gone. Her second book, My Lover's Lover, was not up to the same standard, but since then she has gone from strength to strength. The Hand that First Held Mine was a
I think Diane Setterfield's Thirteenth Tale is the only other book where I've enjoyed the use of language to the same extent.
Quote:
"Midnight in the Blue Lagoon Café Bar. The baristas have gone for the night, having swept the floor, wiped the tables, bagged up the rubbish and locked the door behind them.
In the dark, shut café, the cappuccino machine cools, unplugged at the socket. The chrome of its casing will give a loud click every few minutes. Cups and glasses stand inverted on the draining board, tepid water slides off them to pool in circles around their rims.
The floor has been swept, but not very well. There is a focaccia crust under Table Four, dropped by a tourist from Maine; the floor around the door is littered with fragments of leaves that have fallen from the plane trees of Soho Square.
Far above the building, a door slams, muffled voices are heard and there is the sound of feet rapidly descending a staircase. The cafe seems to listen attentively. The dried glasses on the shelves vibrate against each other in sympathy with the crashing footsteps. A drop of water falls from the tap, spreads over the bowl of the sink, then trickles towards the plughole. The footsteps are thudding along passageway beside the wall of the café, the front door slams and out on to the pavement comes the girl who works nights upstairs."
Who needs television when writers use such evocative language?
The narrative is written in two distinct time zones; The lives of Lexie Sinclair and Innes Kent revolve around a magazine publishing company and the art scene of 1950's London, while some 40 years later, Elina and Ted are struggling with many of the same problems. Needless to say there is a connection between the couples but we don't discover what this is until the gradual unravelling near the end of the book.
The characters are strong, their emotions intense. The wonderful descriptions of the impact of motherhood were spot on and the effect of the arrival of a new baby on the parents' relationship brought back many memories.
I can't praise this book too highly.
A rare treat and highly recommended. 10 out of 5!
I first discovered Maggie O'Farrell when I read and enjoyed After You'd Gone. Her second book, My Lover's Lover, was not up to the same standard, but since then she has gone from strength to strength. The Hand that First Held Mine was a
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perfect example of an author at the peak of her craft, her use of words was superlative and the book was a joy from the first page to the last.I think Diane Setterfield's Thirteenth Tale is the only other book where I've enjoyed the use of language to the same extent.
Quote:
"Midnight in the Blue Lagoon Café Bar. The baristas have gone for the night, having swept the floor, wiped the tables, bagged up the rubbish and locked the door behind them.
In the dark, shut café, the cappuccino machine cools, unplugged at the socket. The chrome of its casing will give a loud click every few minutes. Cups and glasses stand inverted on the draining board, tepid water slides off them to pool in circles around their rims.
The floor has been swept, but not very well. There is a focaccia crust under Table Four, dropped by a tourist from Maine; the floor around the door is littered with fragments of leaves that have fallen from the plane trees of Soho Square.
Far above the building, a door slams, muffled voices are heard and there is the sound of feet rapidly descending a staircase. The cafe seems to listen attentively. The dried glasses on the shelves vibrate against each other in sympathy with the crashing footsteps. A drop of water falls from the tap, spreads over the bowl of the sink, then trickles towards the plughole. The footsteps are thudding along passageway beside the wall of the café, the front door slams and out on to the pavement comes the girl who works nights upstairs."
Who needs television when writers use such evocative language?
The narrative is written in two distinct time zones; The lives of Lexie Sinclair and Innes Kent revolve around a magazine publishing company and the art scene of 1950's London, while some 40 years later, Elina and Ted are struggling with many of the same problems. Needless to say there is a connection between the couples but we don't discover what this is until the gradual unravelling near the end of the book.
The characters are strong, their emotions intense. The wonderful descriptions of the impact of motherhood were spot on and the effect of the arrival of a new baby on the parents' relationship brought back many memories.
I can't praise this book too highly.
A rare treat and highly recommended. 10 out of 5!
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LibraryThing member jbrubacher
Two stories. In one, a modern couple just had a baby, the woman is trying to recover from a difficult pregnancy and adjust to a difficult life, and the man is struggling to remember something from his early childhood that he didn't know he'd forgotten. In the other, a generation ago a woman moves
Of course the stories are connected. We are only told how near the middle to end of the book, but you could guess it from the very beginning. It isn't that mystery that moves this book but the lives of the two women (the two mothers.) Written in present tense, this is a literary novel to its full definition, moody and descriptive. The pace isn't too slow, but if you guess the twist near the beginning you aren't waiting for much except for a second opinion. If you enjoy the extremely literary "She looked out the window. She thought of such and such. He put his head in his hands" type of writing, you will definitely like this. I didn't like the style, but the characters were almost interesting enough that I almost enjoyed the book.
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to London to begin a more exciting life, falls in love, loses love, and eventually has a baby with a man she only slightly likes.Of course the stories are connected. We are only told how near the middle to end of the book, but you could guess it from the very beginning. It isn't that mystery that moves this book but the lives of the two women (the two mothers.) Written in present tense, this is a literary novel to its full definition, moody and descriptive. The pace isn't too slow, but if you guess the twist near the beginning you aren't waiting for much except for a second opinion. If you enjoy the extremely literary "She looked out the window. She thought of such and such. He put his head in his hands" type of writing, you will definitely like this. I didn't like the style, but the characters were almost interesting enough that I almost enjoyed the book.
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LibraryThing member SmithSJ01
I was engaged with this from the outset. It isn’t often I enjoy novels with two clear stories running through them separated by time, for some reason “time-slice” novels just aren’t my cup of tea. This one however had a very clear unwritten link that will become obvious to the reader fairly
I previously read ‘The Vanishing Act of Esme Lennox’ and was only slightly impressed so it was only because my book group were reading this one that I joined in. I’m pleased I did as I would have overlooked this fabulous novel, which actually had me in tears at one point. The two different times are the 1950s and the present. In the 1950s Lexie and Innes life is rich in imagery and you really get to know the character of Lexie. In the present, Ted and Elina’s life is presented very differently and both of these characters are wonderfully written. All of the four characters are great but the introduction of other characters along the way just adds to the overall effect.
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early on. Whilst this may seem that it would spoil it, it doesn’t because it doesn’t actually impact on your reading, I felt settled because I wasn’t trying to see the point then, I could just get on and enjoy a superbly written novel.I previously read ‘The Vanishing Act of Esme Lennox’ and was only slightly impressed so it was only because my book group were reading this one that I joined in. I’m pleased I did as I would have overlooked this fabulous novel, which actually had me in tears at one point. The two different times are the 1950s and the present. In the 1950s Lexie and Innes life is rich in imagery and you really get to know the character of Lexie. In the present, Ted and Elina’s life is presented very differently and both of these characters are wonderfully written. All of the four characters are great but the introduction of other characters along the way just adds to the overall effect.
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LibraryThing member solla
[The Hand the First Held Mine] tells of two interweaving sets of lives, one that begins with a women, Lexie, 21 in the mid fifities, and just about to leave home for good. She is an independent woman who works as an arts and news writer when woman mostly didn't, and is also independent about her
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relationships. The other strand is about a young couple in the present day who have just had a baby. Elina almost died during the birth, and she is shaken by it for a time, and so is her husband, Ted. The story has to do with losing and regaining memory, and with the ties between people. The characters are both fragile and very strong. It is another that I put other books aside to read, and is very strong. Show Less
LibraryThing member AshMeinders
Disappointing after The Disappearing Act of Esme Lennox. The book started off slow and concluded too fast with nothing really original or exciting in between.
LibraryThing member CloggieDownunder
The Hand That First Held Mine is Maggie O’Farrell’s fifth novel. Two stories are told in parallel: Lexie Sinclair quits Devon for London when the charismatic Innes Kent arrives on her doorstep, and starts her life at the heart of the 1950s Soho art scene; Elina and Ted are coming to terms with
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the changes wrought in their present-day lives by the birth of their son. As we follow lives separated by fifty years, wondering how they might be connected, we learn that Ted has been having flashes of memory of his childhood which seem at odds with his parents’ version. O’Farrell weaves her usual magic with authentic dialogue and evocative descriptions: the feel of 1950s London is expertly conveyed. This novel is filled with elegant prose, characters to love and to despise, humour and heartbreak, poignant moments and enough plot twists to keep the reader guessing. Fans of Maggie O’Farrell’s previous novels will not be disappointed. Show Less
LibraryThing member coolmama
Haunting novel told in two parts.
What I didn't like is that it took 90% into the book to finally get a glimpse of how these two independent stories are related.
Elin and Ted have just had a baby boy. Elin had lost a lot of blood, and almost died. Ted who has a bad memory appears to have his earlier
Lexie and Innes are boho Soho journalists in 1950s London.
I LOVE MAGGIE O"FARRELL. Her stories have such intenstity, she writes with such descriptive force, you feel likeyou are in them.
What I didn't like is that it took 90% into the book to finally get a glimpse of how these two independent stories are related.
Elin and Ted have just had a baby boy. Elin had lost a lot of blood, and almost died. Ted who has a bad memory appears to have his earlier
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life as a child come back to him in fits and starts.Lexie and Innes are boho Soho journalists in 1950s London.
I LOVE MAGGIE O"FARRELL. Her stories have such intenstity, she writes with such descriptive force, you feel likeyou are in them.
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LibraryThing member ddirmeyer
Maggie O'Farrell's novel explores two different families during two different times in London. We are given wonderful insight into the feelings and dynamics of each, but must wait until later in the book to ascertain how they are connected.
I found the novel to be intriguing. O'Farrell does a
I found the novel to be intriguing. O'Farrell does a
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wonderful job of delving into the question of what makes a family. We also learn that choices made can impact generations to come. Show Less
LibraryThing member ForeignCircus
This stunning book tells the stories of two women- two mothers- whose lives are changed first by love and then by motherhood. These two separate stories highlight the differences between women's lives in the post-WWII and modern day eras and also the similarities of the ties that bind them. As
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Lexie and Elina struggle with love and loss, Elina's husband Ted struggles with the memories he can't escape (Elina almost dying in childbirth) and those he cannot call to mind (his entire childhood is a blank). As this book builds to its stunning conclusion, these two stories collide in an unexpectedly graceful way. Though the book was a little hard to sink into at first, by the time I hit page 30, I knew I couldn't put it down until finished. Highly recommended! Show Less
LibraryThing member yourotherleft
The Hand That First Held Mine features two main characters. Lexie Sinclair has just left her backwater country home for faster paced London. Soon she is finding love with a dashing older married man and a career as a journalist, reporting on art and artists. We first meet Elina, an artist and
Maggie O'Farrell has a unique writing style that just works so well. It's not terribly radical, but it's still unlike so much of what I find myself reading. The Hand That First Held Mine is like a present you might unwrap slowly, revealing bit by bit what lies at the center, the captivating characters and how they are connected despite being generations apart. Yet, oddly, even as you peel off layer after layer, you find that as the people and the plot are being exposed, you are the one being wrapped up in it all. O'Farrell captures so well the minutia of being a bewildered first time mother, of being in a new place where you've always wanted to be for the first time, of falling in love, of death, of grief, of healing. She draws out the mundane and the extraordinary in her characters' lives in bit and pieces of nonconsecutive scenes, and somehow, while you're busy being taken in by these individual crisply descriptive scenes, she is enveloping you totally in her tale so that you can hardly separate yourself from it, let alone put it down.
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another Londoner, as she wakes up to discover she has had a baby. She remembers being pregnant, but the actual giving birth part seems to be missing from her memory. At the outset, London and art seem to be the only things the two women who are generations apart from each other have in common, and O'Farrell uses the city artfully to tell the women's stories in tandem. As Lexie blossoms and falls in love and Elina blunders dazedly through her first weeks of motherhood, there is much more to be revealed about how the two women are connected across the generations. Maggie O'Farrell has a unique writing style that just works so well. It's not terribly radical, but it's still unlike so much of what I find myself reading. The Hand That First Held Mine is like a present you might unwrap slowly, revealing bit by bit what lies at the center, the captivating characters and how they are connected despite being generations apart. Yet, oddly, even as you peel off layer after layer, you find that as the people and the plot are being exposed, you are the one being wrapped up in it all. O'Farrell captures so well the minutia of being a bewildered first time mother, of being in a new place where you've always wanted to be for the first time, of falling in love, of death, of grief, of healing. She draws out the mundane and the extraordinary in her characters' lives in bit and pieces of nonconsecutive scenes, and somehow, while you're busy being taken in by these individual crisply descriptive scenes, she is enveloping you totally in her tale so that you can hardly separate yourself from it, let alone put it down.
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LibraryThing member Mumineurope
Lexie, Theo, Elina and Ted and how they are connected. Memories of childhood.
LibraryThing member booksinthebelfry
A poignant novel about love and loss, identity and memory, and how all of these infuse (and confuse) the relationships between parents and children. O'Farrell is an elegantly incisive writer and there is rarely a misplaced or superfluous phrase in her descriptions of her characters or the worlds
Also highly recommended: O'Farrell's The Vanishing Act of Esme Lennox.
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they inhabit. In this book she has created not one but two memorable female characters, whose stories, though separated in time, eventually intersect in a way that satisfies both the internal demands of the plot and the emotional responses of the reader. Lexie, finding her way in the exciting but tumultuous world of postwar Soho, and Elina, struggling to find her footing after the birth of her first child in present-day London, are at once fully realized individuals within specific historical and cultural contexts and touchstones for universal experiences of love and motherhood.Also highly recommended: O'Farrell's The Vanishing Act of Esme Lennox.
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LibraryThing member jmchshannon
Unfortunately, The Hand that First Held Mine is one of those books about which I have no strong feelings, and I have been wracking my brain trying to discern why this may be. The mysterious connection is compelling. Each character's story is intriguing. The descriptions are amazingly clear and
For one thing, Elina's postpartum depression is amazingly difficult to read. The detailed descriptions make her pain, confusion and pain that much more uncomfortable to watch unfold. In addition, there is a pervading sense of doom on each page of the story that draws the reader into turning the page while making the act of reading each page uncomfortable and nerve-wracking. Lexie, as the more vibrant and capable of the characters, remains one of the bright spots of the novel, but even when her story takes center stage, the reader is left with a feeling of foreshadowing at her ultimate future. This haunting feeling persists throughout the story.
The connection between the characters was surprising only because it should not have been so. With hindsight, I get the impression that Ms. O'Farrell deliberately misdirects the reader from realizing the connection only because the connection is glaringly obvious once the reader figures it out. While this may seem like it would detract from the overall story, in fact it only adds to the reader's enjoyment because s/he gets the chance to find the hints that were there all along.
One of my favorite things about the book was the focus on motherhood and how it changes everything. Much like this book, motherhood is one of those things that women only truly understand when they become mothers themselves. Whether one suffers from postpartum depression, embraces motherhood from the first moment of realizing one's pending bundle of joy, or falls somewhere in the middle, every mother can appreciate the changes to body and to life a child brings to her world:
"We change shape...we buy low-heeled shoes, we cut off our long hair. We begin to carry in our bags half-eaten rusks, a small tractor, a shred of beloved fabric, a plastic doll. We lose muscle tone, sleep, reason, perspective. Our hearts begin to live outside our bodies. They breath, they eat, they crawl and - look! - they walk, they begin to speak to us. We learn that we must sometimes walk an inch at a time, to stop and examine every stick, every stone, every squashed tin along the way. We get use to not getting where we were going. We learn to darn, perhaps to cook, to patch the knees of dungarees. We get used to living with a love that suffuses us, suffocates us, blinds us, controls us. We love. We contemplate our bodies, our stretched skin, those threads of silver around our brows, our strangely enlarged feet. We learn to look less in the mirror. We put our dry-clean-only clothes to the back of the wardrobe. Eventually, we throw them away. We school ourselves to stop saying 'shit' and 'damn' and learn to say 'my goodness' and 'heavens above'. We give up smoking, we colour our hair, we search the vistas of parks, swimming-pools, libraries, cafes for others of our kind. We know each other by our pushchairs, our sleepless gaves, the beakers we carry. We learn how to cool a fever, ease a cough, the four indicators of meningitis, that one must sometimes push a swing for two hours. We buy biscuit cutters, washable paints, aprons, plastic bowls. We no longer tolerate delayed buses, fighting in the street, smoking in restaurants, sex after midnight, inconsistency, laziness, being cold. We contemplate younger women as they pass us in the street, with their cigarettes, their makeup, their tight-seamed dresses, their tiny handbags, their smooth, washed hair, and we turn away, we put down our heads, we keep on pushing the pram up the hill." (page 254)
Ultimately, this book is one ode to motherhood - no matter what type of mother you may be, we are all united in what we face and experience through our children and our love for those children. In the end, this is what makes The Hand that First Held Mine an amazing read. It's a sneaky one, as there are no easy answers, no immediate sense of love or hate. Readers must work to make sense of their feelings about the book, but once they do, they find their efforts fully rewarded. Because of the efforts required to truly appreciate the novel, The Hand that First Held Mine is not for everyone. However, if you do take a chance, you will find yourself enjoying the beauty behind the pain of motherhood , an interesting mystery and thoroughly memorable characters.
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easily pictured. I really did enjoy the story. So what is it about the story that still has me feeling blank a week after finishing it? It wasn't until I started writing this review before I finally figured it out.For one thing, Elina's postpartum depression is amazingly difficult to read. The detailed descriptions make her pain, confusion and pain that much more uncomfortable to watch unfold. In addition, there is a pervading sense of doom on each page of the story that draws the reader into turning the page while making the act of reading each page uncomfortable and nerve-wracking. Lexie, as the more vibrant and capable of the characters, remains one of the bright spots of the novel, but even when her story takes center stage, the reader is left with a feeling of foreshadowing at her ultimate future. This haunting feeling persists throughout the story.
The connection between the characters was surprising only because it should not have been so. With hindsight, I get the impression that Ms. O'Farrell deliberately misdirects the reader from realizing the connection only because the connection is glaringly obvious once the reader figures it out. While this may seem like it would detract from the overall story, in fact it only adds to the reader's enjoyment because s/he gets the chance to find the hints that were there all along.
One of my favorite things about the book was the focus on motherhood and how it changes everything. Much like this book, motherhood is one of those things that women only truly understand when they become mothers themselves. Whether one suffers from postpartum depression, embraces motherhood from the first moment of realizing one's pending bundle of joy, or falls somewhere in the middle, every mother can appreciate the changes to body and to life a child brings to her world:
"We change shape...we buy low-heeled shoes, we cut off our long hair. We begin to carry in our bags half-eaten rusks, a small tractor, a shred of beloved fabric, a plastic doll. We lose muscle tone, sleep, reason, perspective. Our hearts begin to live outside our bodies. They breath, they eat, they crawl and - look! - they walk, they begin to speak to us. We learn that we must sometimes walk an inch at a time, to stop and examine every stick, every stone, every squashed tin along the way. We get use to not getting where we were going. We learn to darn, perhaps to cook, to patch the knees of dungarees. We get used to living with a love that suffuses us, suffocates us, blinds us, controls us. We love. We contemplate our bodies, our stretched skin, those threads of silver around our brows, our strangely enlarged feet. We learn to look less in the mirror. We put our dry-clean-only clothes to the back of the wardrobe. Eventually, we throw them away. We school ourselves to stop saying 'shit' and 'damn' and learn to say 'my goodness' and 'heavens above'. We give up smoking, we colour our hair, we search the vistas of parks, swimming-pools, libraries, cafes for others of our kind. We know each other by our pushchairs, our sleepless gaves, the beakers we carry. We learn how to cool a fever, ease a cough, the four indicators of meningitis, that one must sometimes push a swing for two hours. We buy biscuit cutters, washable paints, aprons, plastic bowls. We no longer tolerate delayed buses, fighting in the street, smoking in restaurants, sex after midnight, inconsistency, laziness, being cold. We contemplate younger women as they pass us in the street, with their cigarettes, their makeup, their tight-seamed dresses, their tiny handbags, their smooth, washed hair, and we turn away, we put down our heads, we keep on pushing the pram up the hill." (page 254)
Ultimately, this book is one ode to motherhood - no matter what type of mother you may be, we are all united in what we face and experience through our children and our love for those children. In the end, this is what makes The Hand that First Held Mine an amazing read. It's a sneaky one, as there are no easy answers, no immediate sense of love or hate. Readers must work to make sense of their feelings about the book, but once they do, they find their efforts fully rewarded. Because of the efforts required to truly appreciate the novel, The Hand that First Held Mine is not for everyone. However, if you do take a chance, you will find yourself enjoying the beauty behind the pain of motherhood , an interesting mystery and thoroughly memorable characters.
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LibraryThing member readingwithtea
Having seen this reviewed all over the blogosphere, I had to try it out for myself. It suffered a little for being the story of two generations, set in London in the 1960s and 1990s/2000s – just like The Last Letter From Your Lover, which I read immediately before it.
I found some parts of this
The characters were exquisitely formed – each very different and all strong and vibrant. I loved Lexie. Her fiery adherence to her principles in the face of the prospect of an “easier life” (particularly her refusal to apologise to her university – which I can only assume from the context is supposed to be Oxford/Cambridge – for using a door meant for men when exiting an exam hall and her seaworthy expletives while giving birth, despite the nurses’ admonishing). Innes and Ted are both strong male characters (for once! Everything I read seems to be filled with either philandering fools or foppish, useless Mummy’s boys) whose love for their partners is fierce and unyielding. Margot, too, is a solid creation, difficult and emotional.
My favourite character was definitely Elina, however. I was delighted to see an author tackle the bilingual experience – both the compulsion of the bilingual to speak their non-English language in certain situations, and the perception of this by their partner. And O’Farrell blesses Elina with inherent coolness (“Often, after one of those walking-about nights, she’d had that look the next day; a woman preoccupied, a woman with a satisfying secret”) which serves as a counterpoint to the exhaustion and apathy of motherhood.
For the first four-fifths of the book, this is simply two interwoven stories, when suddenly a mystery is flung into the plot, suddenly livening up the ending (by which point there’s not much space for character development any more) – which really impressed me.
I will definitely be recommending this, although I will have to advise readers to stick with it and get used to the back-and-forth chapters, which I found quite off-putting at first. Very much worth the effort.
I found some parts of this
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really quite uncomfortable, particularly the evident trauma of birth and new motherhood on Elina and the obvious doom lurking around Lexie and Innes’ relationship. However, if anything that made this a better read – challenging the reader and not allowing the book to become a cotton candy-coloured cloud like Last Letter.The characters were exquisitely formed – each very different and all strong and vibrant. I loved Lexie. Her fiery adherence to her principles in the face of the prospect of an “easier life” (particularly her refusal to apologise to her university – which I can only assume from the context is supposed to be Oxford/Cambridge – for using a door meant for men when exiting an exam hall and her seaworthy expletives while giving birth, despite the nurses’ admonishing). Innes and Ted are both strong male characters (for once! Everything I read seems to be filled with either philandering fools or foppish, useless Mummy’s boys) whose love for their partners is fierce and unyielding. Margot, too, is a solid creation, difficult and emotional.
My favourite character was definitely Elina, however. I was delighted to see an author tackle the bilingual experience – both the compulsion of the bilingual to speak their non-English language in certain situations, and the perception of this by their partner. And O’Farrell blesses Elina with inherent coolness (“Often, after one of those walking-about nights, she’d had that look the next day; a woman preoccupied, a woman with a satisfying secret”) which serves as a counterpoint to the exhaustion and apathy of motherhood.
For the first four-fifths of the book, this is simply two interwoven stories, when suddenly a mystery is flung into the plot, suddenly livening up the ending (by which point there’s not much space for character development any more) – which really impressed me.
I will definitely be recommending this, although I will have to advise readers to stick with it and get used to the back-and-forth chapters, which I found quite off-putting at first. Very much worth the effort.
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LibraryThing member frisbeesage
The Hand That First Held Mine starts with Lexie Sinclair, raised in a wealthy, country family, she flees to postwar London looking for excitement and stimulation. She takes up with Innes, an older man who owns and edits a magazine. As a reporter she develops into a fascinating woman, strong and
Switch to modern day and we meet Elina and Ted, a young couple who have just had a baby through a traumatic birth. As a new father Ted begins to have disturbing visions and memories that he can't place or explain. Elina struggles to recover from the birth and, conversely, seems to be losing her memories.
In the end, the two stories are linked through a horrible tragedy.
I loved the parts of the book about Lexie. She is grows a lot during the book and develops into a woman I would like to know. Her experiences shape her in interesting, yet realistic ways. The modern day story is not as well-written with Ted and Elina seeming to drift in a haze, not knowing what direction to take. The climatic ending was great, but the middle of the book could have used a little more oomph. I didn't enjoy The Hand That First Held Mine as much as The Vanishing Act of Esme Lennox, but it was worth the read.
I listened to the audio version of The Hand That First Held Mine, read by Anne Flosnick. I am a sucker for a British accent and she hers is a nice, subtle one. I do wish she had used a more pronounced difference for the voices of Lexie and Elina and for the two plot lines in general.
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opinionated, but with a tender connection to Innes. Switch to modern day and we meet Elina and Ted, a young couple who have just had a baby through a traumatic birth. As a new father Ted begins to have disturbing visions and memories that he can't place or explain. Elina struggles to recover from the birth and, conversely, seems to be losing her memories.
In the end, the two stories are linked through a horrible tragedy.
I loved the parts of the book about Lexie. She is grows a lot during the book and develops into a woman I would like to know. Her experiences shape her in interesting, yet realistic ways. The modern day story is not as well-written with Ted and Elina seeming to drift in a haze, not knowing what direction to take. The climatic ending was great, but the middle of the book could have used a little more oomph. I didn't enjoy The Hand That First Held Mine as much as The Vanishing Act of Esme Lennox, but it was worth the read.
I listened to the audio version of The Hand That First Held Mine, read by Anne Flosnick. I am a sucker for a British accent and she hers is a nice, subtle one. I do wish she had used a more pronounced difference for the voices of Lexie and Elina and for the two plot lines in general.
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Awards
Dublin Literary Award (Longlist — 2012)
Costa Book Awards (Shortlist — Novel — 2010)