
The Hand That First Held Mine
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Narrated by:
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Anne Flosnik
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By:
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Maggie O’Farrell
About this listen
Lexie Sinclair yearns for more than her parents’ genteel country life. She makes her way to the city, where she meets a magazine editor, Innes, a man unlike any she has ever imagined. He introduces her to the thrilling world of Bohemian postwar London, and Lexie learns to become a reporter, to know art and artists, to live fully, unconventionally, and with deep love. And when she finds herself pregnant by a man wholly unsuitable for marriage or fatherhood, she doesn’t hesitate a minute to have the baby on her own.
Later, in present-day London, a young painter named Elina dizzily navigates the first weeks of motherhood. Her boyfriend, Ted, traumatized by nearly losing her in labor, begins to recover lost memories. At first he cannot place them, but as they emerge, we discover something heartbreaking and beautiful that connects these two stories.
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When Jem and his family first move to a small town, he struggles with his new life. The unhappier he grows, the stranger things become—mischief and chaos seem to bloom everywhere. His sister Verity is sure it is the work of a “nouka,” an ancient creature that lives deep down inside the hill above the town—a creature forged from the sparks of a long-extinct volcano. Jem is adamant that there is no such thing. But it is through the magic and mayhem of this small mystical creature that Jem finally finds a sense of belonging, a sense of home—and once again discovers a spark of magic.
By: Maggie O'Farrell, and others
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The Distance Between Us
- A Novel
- By: Maggie O'Farrell
- Narrated by: Susie Riddell
- Length: 10 hrs and 6 mins
- Unabridged
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On a cold February afternoon, Stella catches sight of a man she hasn't seen for many years, but instantly recognises. Or thinks she does. At the same moment on the other side of the globe, in the middle of a crowd of Chinese New Year revellers, Jake realises that things are becoming dangerous. They know nothing of one another's existence, but both Stella and Jake flee their lives: Jake in search of a place so remote it doesn't appear on any map, and Stella for a destination in Scotland, the significance of which only her sister, Nina, will understand.
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Not my favorite Maggie O’Farrell novel…
- By serene ghazi on 03-05-24
By: Maggie O'Farrell
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The Marriage Portrait
- A Novel
- By: Maggie O'Farrell
- Narrated by: Genevieve Gaunt, Maggie O'Farrell
- Length: 13 hrs and 21 mins
- Unabridged
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Florence, the 1550s. Lucrezia, third daughter of the grand duke, is comfortable with her obscure place in the palazzo: free to wonder at its treasures, observe its clandestine workings, and to devote herself to her own artistic pursuits. But when her older sister dies on the eve of her wedding, Lucrezia is thrust into the limelight: the duke is quick to request her hand in marriage, and her father just as quick to accept on her behalf. Having barely left girlhood behind, Lucrezia must make her way in a court whose customs are opaque and where her arrival is not universally welcomed.
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If You Love Alternate Histories, Get This
- By Jim on 09-26-22
By: Maggie O'Farrell
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My Lover’s Lover
- By: Maggie O'Farrell
- Narrated by: Elle Newlands
- Length: 9 hrs and 32 mins
- Unabridged
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When Lily slips on the sidewalk outside a London gallery and literally falls at the feet of a stranger, Marcus, the attraction is instant and electric. Within a week, she is sharing this magnetic yet elusive architect’s waterfront loft and sleeping in the room that belonged to his girlfriend, Sinead, about whom he will only say that “she’s no longer...with us”. But there lingers a distinct presence, of a woman who seems to have disappeared abruptly - leaving behind a single sexy dress in the closet, a puzzling mark on the wall, and the suffocating scent of jasmine.
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I wouldn’t recommend
- By j b lacy on 12-01-24
By: Maggie O'Farrell
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When the Stammer Came to Stay
- By: Maggie O'Farrell
- Narrated by: Aoife McMahon
- Length: 43 mins
- Unabridged
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Quiet Bea keeps her shoes polished, folds her clothes every night, and alphabetizes her books. Her rambunctious sister Min wears torn trousers and wades into ponds to collect frogspawn. Above all, Min is a storyteller who loves to chat with everyone. But one day she chokes, and the words forming in her mouth never make it out. Words suddenly feel dangerous, unwieldy. Min is no longer herself—not with some strange creature stealing her words, a creature not even her sister can see. But that doesn’t matter, because Bea sees Min.
By: Maggie O'Farrell
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The Forgotten Waltz
- By: Anne Enright
- Narrated by: Heather O'Neill
- Length: 7 hrs and 12 mins
- Unabridged
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Irish novelist Anne Enright won the coveted Man Booker Prize for her eloquent novel The Gathering. In The Forgotten Waltz, Enright crafts a stunning tale about a Dublin woman’s affair and its heartrending consequences. Gina Moynihan is already married when she meets Seán Vallely. But longing and desire soon overtake them - and their lives begin to crumble shortly after.
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- By Amazosity on 04-30-24
By: Anne Enright
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Nora Webster: A Novel
- By: Colm Toibin
- Narrated by: Fiona Shaw
- Length: 11 hrs and 20 mins
- Unabridged
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Widowed at forty, with four children and not enough money, Nora has lost the love of her life, Maurice, the man who rescued her from the stifling world to which she was born. And now she fears she may be drawn back into it. Wounded, strong-willed, clinging to secrecy in a tiny community where everyone knows your business, Nora is drowning in her own sorrow and blind to the suffering of her young sons, who have lost their father.
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Contrived & Overreaching
- By Sara on 12-13-15
By: Colm Toibin
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The Wren, the Wren
- By: Anne Enright
- Narrated by: Anne Enright, Aoife Duffin, Owen Roe, and others
- Length: 7 hrs and 39 mins
- Unabridged
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Nell McDaragh never knew her grandfather, the celebrated Irish poet Phil McDaragh. But his love poems seem to speak directly to her. Restless and wryly self-assured, at twenty-two Nell leaves her mother Carmel’s orderly home to find her own voice as a writer (mostly online, ghost-blogging for an influencer) and to live a poetical life. As she chases obsessive love, damage, and transcendence, in Dublin and beyond, her grandfather’s poetry seems to guide her home.
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The different kinds of love, spoken and unspoken in a family.
- By Sheryl L on 05-08-24
By: Anne Enright
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Autumn
- By: Ali Smith
- Narrated by: Melody Grove
- Length: 5 hrs and 27 mins
- Unabridged
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Fusing Keatsian mists and mellow fruitfulness with the vitality, the immediacy, and the color hit of Pop Art, Autumn is a witty excavation of the present by the past. The novel is a stripped-branches take on popular culture and a meditation, in a world growing ever more bordered and exclusive, on what richness and worth are, what harvest means.
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Incredible use of language
- By Mary on 03-06-17
By: Ali Smith
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Lessons
- By: Ian McEwan
- Narrated by: Simon McBurney
- Length: 17 hrs and 33 mins
- Unabridged
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When the world is still counting the cost of the Second World War and the Iron Curtain has closed, eleven-year-old Roland Baines's life is turned upside down. 2,000 miles from his mother's protective love, stranded at an unusual boarding school, his vulnerability attracts piano teacher Miss Miriam Cornell, leaving scars as well as a memory of love that will never fade.
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Narrator Simon McBurney gets my 100% rating
- By Peggy M on 09-26-22
By: Ian McEwan
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History of the Rain
- By: Niall Williams
- Narrated by: Jennifer McGrath
- Length: 11 hrs and 22 mins
- Unabridged
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We are our stories. We tell them to stay alive or keep alive those who only live now in the telling. In Faha, County Clare, everyone is a long story...Bedbound in her attic room beneath the falling rain, Plain Ruth Swain is in search of her father. To find him Ruthie must first trace the jutting jaw lines, narrow faces, and gleamy skin of the Swains from the restless Reverend Swain, her great-grandfather, to her father.
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The language is astoundingly beautiful.
- By Kindle Customer on 05-30-17
By: Niall Williams
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Time of the Child
- By: Niall Williams
- Narrated by: Dermot Crowley
- Length: 13 hrs and 20 mins
- Unabridged
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Doctor Jack Troy was born and raised in Faha, but his responsibilities for the sick and his care for the dying mean he has always been set apart from the town. His eldest daughter, Ronnie, has grown up in her father’s shadow, and remains there, having missed one chance at love – and passed up another offer of marriage from an unsuitable man. But in the Advent season of 1962, as the town readies itself for Christmas, Ronnie and Doctor Troy’s lives are turned upside down when a baby is left in their care.
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A slower start than This Is Happiness but then….wonderful.
- By Georgia Burns on 12-01-24
By: Niall Williams
What listeners say about The Hand That First Held Mine
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- dana boling
- 03-04-22
It was Ok
I struggled to get into this book. The 3rdnperspn point of view made it hard to fall in love with the characters. It seemed very clinical and the switching story lines were hard to follow.
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- PearlGirl
- 12-07-23
Tedious
I have loved other books by Maggie O'Farrell, especially Hamnet. This was so disappointing. It took way too long for the two narratives to finally converge. Elena's story in particular seemed mired in tedious details. Both story lines included lots of seemingly irrelevant passages. Lexi was the most complete character but not especially compelling. I only finished it because I was traveling and needed a listen to pass the time driving. Kept hoping it would get better but it didn't. Also found the reader a bit grating and detached sounding which didn't help the tedium.
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- Kacey H.
- 09-27-22
Loved This Book
I enjoyed listening to this book. The story line was very well put together. Hopefully the author reads reviews…… I need a follow up! I loved the book so much I’ll have to listen to it again.
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- Icelandia
- 09-25-22
Such a Well-written Story
I have been a fan of Maggie O’Farrell since reading/listening to Hamnet. This story is equal to that one as it demonstrates the author’s ability to include the slightest details to illustrate the characters and the plot. It was cinematic (in a good way). I was very sorry to get to the end.
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- Sandra L. Rubio
- 01-22-24
Entertaining enough
I was drawn into the story from the very beginning, the characters interesting and the development swift.
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- A. J.
- 10-28-21
A Fever Dream In The Fog
Reading this story is like waking from a night you cannot remember. You recall what you felt, but the sequence of events is just out of your grasp. This disjointed rhythm was off-putting at first. However, the story became more intriguing as the fog lifted and the dynamic nature of the characters came to light. Each person is discovering (and thus collecting) scraps of their pasts. All the while, they are forced to engage with the present. The tension of the story is beautifully held, and the reaching the conclusion is well worth the journey.
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- Amazon Customer
- 05-27-22
This is the first book of this author
I gave read and it won’t be the last!!this is a beautiful story that comes together in a satisfying way. I highly recommend.
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- Skip
- 04-26-22
Beautiful, funny, and moving
I’ve loved O’Farrell’s other novels but had not read this one - it is exquisite! Richly involving, with so many intricate details about daily life and motherhood and the hopes of all parents. Such a wonderfully enthralling listening experience. I savored every minute.
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- Rosie
- 01-21-23
Maggie is a Magnificent Writer
In a world full of instant gratification, fast food, and fast reads, Maggie O’Farrell‘s novels are deliciously rich, slow, and filling. She is my favorite living writer. If you love this, read/listen to her novel, the Vanishing Act of Esme Lennox, and her memoir I Am, I Am, I Am.
You’re welcome!
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- Madeleine Homan
- 02-19-23
So well dines
I resisted this book because it was marketed as “womens fiction” which is a trend that drives me nuts. But then I realized it was Maggie O’Farrell pre- Hamnet success. Excellent writing, masterful character development, heartbreaking story well told.
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