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After You’d Gone by Maggie O’Farrell – 384 pages
Book Blurb:
Alice Raikes takes a train from London to Scotland to visit her family, but when she gets there she witnesses something so shocking that she insists on returning to London immediately. A few hours later, Alice is lying in a coma after an accident that may or may not have been a suicide attempt. Alice’s family gathers at her bedside and as they wait, argue, and remember, long-buried tensions emerge. The more they talk, the more they seem to conceal. Alice, meanwhile, slides between varying levels of consciousness, recalling her past and a love affair that recently ended.
My Review: 4 stars
This was my first of many Maggie O’Farrell novels and thus holds deep affection as I’ve greatly enjoyed all of her books. Most of this book is told while the main protagonist is in a coma from the bits and pieces of information we glean from those around her. That in it self was brilliant work by the author as those sitting at her bedside reflect upon her life from different time periods and different POVs. How she did that without making the reader go batty was perfection. At the heart of this book is a beautiful romance, which for me was one of the best parts. Well done, especially for a debut novel.
Quotes I liked:
She has spent most of the day reading and is feeling rather out of touch with reality, as if her own life has become insubstantial in the face of the fiction she’s been absorbed in.”
What are you supposed to do with all the love you have for somebody if that person is no longer there?
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