Review: The Hand That First Held Mine

The Hand That First Held Mine by Maggie O'Farrell
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I received this book as a gift so I really wanted to like it.

It was an author new to me and started as a slow read. Following the lives of Lexie, a disgraced graduate as she makes a new life for herself in London at the heart of the 1950s Soho art scene and, in the present, Elina and Ted who are struggling to cope with becoming parents after the difficult delivery of their son, it felt at first as if it was two different stories with chapters from each alternating in the same book.

Then the suggestion of a link between them is made and gradually we are led to a satisfying explanation of how they are all linked together.

I'm definitely glad I persevered. It's well written and imaginitive and the quote on the sleeve from Barbara Trapido is very apt: "A spellbinding story of love, loss and redemption that draws you into a web of interconnected lives."

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