After You'd Gone
A Novel
-
-
4.2 • 50 Ratings
-
-
- $11.99
-
- $11.99
Publisher Description
The stunning, groundbreaking debut novel of wrenching love and grief from the New York Times bestselling author of The Marriage Portrait and National Book Circle Award Winner Hamnet
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. A riveting story that skips through time and interweaves multiple points of view, After You'd Gone is a novel of stunning psychological depth, marking the debut of a major literary talent.
Customer Reviews
What a Debut
This is the first book Maggie O’Farrell wrote and you can see here the focus on character she applies to all her novels. And it works pretty well in this book especially, and not surprisingly, with the female characters. Alice first of all but also Ann and Elspeth, are utterly full and fascinating. I wanted to meet each of them. The male characters, however, including John, not so much. I mention John because he is so obviously central to the story. O’Farrell sets him up well but his psychological and emotional depth does not develop as it does with Ann and Alice. And Ben is really flat. The jumping around timeline is quite effective but I do think O’Farrell uses the cliffhanger section endings a bit too much. Astonishing debut for a 28 year old.
Love! Love! Love!
I couldn’t put this book down. I felt all the feels!
After you’d gone
This was a difficult book to read on a myriad of different levels. I had read a few other books by this author, and I really appreciated them, but this I felt was left undone and grossly inadequate written, edited and executed. If anyone has had any sort of loss in their life, skip this book. It was weak, indefensible for those who have experienced loss. It felt overly rushed, inauthentic and truly sub par. It was really quite terrible. A massive waste of my time and money.