The Hand That First Held Mine (Maggie O'Farrell)

[beatofthedrum]

Just finished this last night and haven't slept well due to thinking about it! I didn't see the ending coming at all - did a search and found it was book of the month on here and it was generally accepted most people would see the 'twist'. The twist has devastated me!

It's made me so sad - well, more melancholy but that sounds silly :). I thought it was the most perfectly written book about motherhood I've ever read. My birth story had similarities (I couldn't have read it in my post-natal phase last year!) and the description of the mother-baby pull just hit the right notes exactly for me. There were so many paragraphs I read multiple times and thought about my own ds.

Sorry for starting a thread about a book that's already been discussed but I'm not ready to put it to the side and forget about it yet. Anyone else been blown away by it?

Yes, me. I was left feeling really sad too and thinking about it for days.

I also agree about how the description of motherhood were spot-on. Those early baby days were described so well.

I rushed straight off to read another by the same author (After You'd Gone) but it was nowhere near as good.

I loved it so much.

It was my favourite book last year.

Much like some of Julie Myerson's writing - she just exactly hits a nerve when writing about being a mother.

Thanks for responses :).
The bit where she realised she wasn't going to be there for her child, for the whole of his life, makes me cry a bit whenever I think of it. Then when you realise what is ahead for her precious child...it's just devastating. I thought the last few paragraphs were great but heartbreaking, when he realises there is a way into her life and her feelings for him, through her writing, but obviously in such a limited manner.
Wonderful book.

Thanks for name of new author, have not read JM, will look up her books!

'Something might happen' by Julie Myerson is v v good.

YY, the bit where she is listing all the thing she won't be there for... teaching him to tie his shoelaces etc. OMG it was just so bloody sad.

Thanks for the recommendation JasperJohns, I'll read that next!