'I am somewhere. Drifting. Hiding. Thoughts running around tracks, random and unconnected as ball-bearings in the circuit of a pinball machine'.

'After You'd Gone' begins near its end. Alice is upset. Alice is not in her right mind. Alice now lies in hospital in a coma. What we get are snippets of her memory; scattered stories that let us know just how she got to this place. But this is not a linear journey. We also jump to Alice's mother's life and we also ricochet back to Alice's silent, comatose present.

This book doesn't read like a true story but rather a gamut of emotions, bundled together like letters left to a loved one. Its jumbled paragraphs can make it difficult at times to follow, yet I felt that best represented what it might feel like to be locked within your head.

With a title like, 'After You'd Gone', there's a spectre of heartache hanging over every vignette. Just what happened after you'd gone, where'd you go, and why? 'She knows enough about love to be aware of its double bind - that there's no love without pain, that you can't ever love someone without that tinge of dread at how it might end'.

This was Maggie O'Farrell's debut and it's a doozy. It's about life and love; finding love, showing love, being true to yourself and true to your love. Read it if you love your emotions being tossed around in a washing machine, as it slowly begins the spin cycle. Like a good wash, you'll feel great after.

'What are you supposed to do with all the love you have for somebody if that person is no longer there? What happens to all the leftover love? Do you suppress it? Do you ignore it? Are you supposed to give it to someone else'?

This is a mesmorisinng book that I have been wanting to read for such a long time. I am kicking myself that it has taken so long - indeed it is 25 years since this was first published.

I was gripped from the very first sentence.
"The day she would try to kill herself, she realised that winter was coming again"
What? Who wants to kill themself? Why? How?
This is what kept me turning the pages in the first instance. I wanted answers to those questions but before long I was engrossed in the story and when I had finished, I was utterly wrung out.

At its heart, this is a love story / family saga .
Told from the point of view of three generations of women. Alice, our main character her two sisters, mother and grandmother. We, the reader, are also pulled backwards and forwards n time as all of the different viewpoints come together.

The author's way with words is captivating and so evocative.
The way that she deals with the very difficult subjects of love, loss and grief, with such honesty yet sensitivity and compassion, is nothing less than astounding.

After You’d Gone is dark, intense, and beautifully written—Maggie O’Farrell really knows how to pull readers into complicated emotions. This one follows Alice and John’s all-consuming love story, with John giving up his family to be with her. After he dies in a London terror attack, Alice is completely lost, and as her grief unfolds, so do long-buried family secrets.

I loved the writing and was fully invested in Alice and John’s relationship, though I did wonder at times if Alice’s attachment to him was a little too much—it’s always unsettling to see a character who can’t imagine happiness without someone else. Also, I wasn’t expecting the twists about Alice’s mother, and they totally caught me off guard. On a lighter note, John having a pet axolotl was a fun little surprise.

Overall, this was a great read, even if I could have done without the spicy bits. Looking forward to reading more of O’Farrell’s backlist.

I read this originally in 2018 and since then Maggie O Farrell has been one of my favourite writers.

She writes so beautifully and tenderly but realistically about relationships. It’s hard to believe this was her debut

I love a multigenerational novel and I love the mix of characters and time periods. This is a truly stunning book.

5 stars.

Here is a quote from the book that sums up my exact experience while reading After You'd Gone.
'She has spent most of the day reading and is feeling rather out of touch with reality, as if her own life has become insubstantiall in the face of the
fiction she's been absorbed in.'
O'Farrell is a tremendous storyteller and brings us on a journey with a secret which is wrapped up in grief, despair, love and the deep complexity of human relationships.. Her writing is so beautiful that it's difficult to believe this was a debut novel - I've read all her other books and will read anything she writes in the future.

This is only the second book I have read by Maggie O’Farrell and it has left me questioning why I haven’t read any of her other books until now. I read The Hand That First Held Mine several years ago and it left a lasting impression on me and I feel exactly the same after finishing After You’d Gone.
The book is a moving story of love and loss and Alice is the central character. However, it is so much more as the background of Alice’s family life is told not just through going back to her past but also that of her Mother’s and Grandmother’s lives and also her relationship between her and her sisters. It is very much a story about the women in Alice’s life and not just about her greatest love, her husband, John. It is clear from the start that John is no longer in Alice’s life but Alice herself has gone through a traumatic experience leading to a road traffic “accident.”
They story moves backwards and forwards in time and the reader starts to piece together family secrets and the long term effects on those who have known or guessed that not all is as it seems in the family. There are some poignant moments in the story and through the sadness of Alice’s story I began to feel that there may be hope for Alice’s future. The descriptive writing really makes the story come alive and I am eager to read more of the author’s work.

I can’t believe this is Maggie O’Farrell’s debut novel - not only is it just so well written, but it’s amazing to see how she’s retained her signature fluid writing style throughout her 25-year long career. What I really appreciate about how Maggie O’Farrell writes her stories is how much thought she puts into connecting every element, including characters, plot points, and even just motifs running through the entire book.

Although it can be a little confusing and maybe even feel a bit disjointed at the beginning, once you get used to all the timeline and perspective changes, I feel the story becomes even more compelling. as you’re forced to pay attention to who the characters are and how they’re feeling at any given moment. This story itself is a tragic one about grief and family dynamics and I found myself really empathising for our main character and everything she goes through.

From her childhood to adulthood, she’s definitely been dealt a difficult hand of cards but reading how everything comes together was an emotional and satisfying experience that I really enjoyed. I’d highly recommend checking this book out, especially you’re a new Maggie O’Farrell reader like me and want to see how her writing has changed (or not).

An incredibly moving book - unputdownable! At first I thought the constant shifting in timelines was going to be irritating, but it's very quick to get used to and I liked the dream - ike jumping around of Alice's thoughts. This has to be one of my favourite books of Maggie O' Farrell and one I will recommend to everyone.
Thank you #Netgalley for this ARC

This is a brilliant book and kept me hooked from the start, the flitting between characters maybe difficult for some readers but I found the whole story riveting, emotional, gripping, sad and left me wanting more. The only thing i wasnt sure about was the ending, otherwise a highly addictive read

This book! It's mesmerising. I absolutely loved it. Right from the beginning, we are drawn into Alice's world but while it seems at first that we are there to figure out what she saw and what happened to her, it is so much deeper. The language is achingly perfect in its descriptions and the study of people and their emotions and history and reactions is beautifully done. I loved the way we move between different characters and their world and perspective. Whether it was Ann or Elspeth or Alice, all are completely engrossing. The people who come into their lives, and out again, are also all fully drawn, recognisable people. I couldn't put it down. It's just wonderful.

Maggie O’Farrell at her absolute best. I adore this book. So beautifully crafted and achingly heart-breaking. I couldn’t put it down and yet didn’t want it to end. I can’t stop thinking about it and Alice and John. O’Farrell has captured the unsaid and all the havoc that wreaks in her clever, clever words. I love the construction of the book too - not always knowing whose voice we’re hearing till a few lines in. I’ve read some great books recently and rated them highly, but ‘After You’d Gone’ surpasses them all.

A brilliant and accurate depiction of grief. Maggie O'Farrell is undoubtedly a genius, I was surprised to learn that After You'd Gone is her debut novel.

"The day she would try to kill herself, she realised winter was coming again."

After You'd Gone tells a story about Alice who is currently in comma, though we have yet to learn the events leading up to this tragedy. The prologue gives off a tense atmosphere, and the opening line is stuck with me throughout the entire time I am reading this book. Told in alternating timeline, sometimes we also get the point of view from Alice's mother, Ann, and even her grandmother, Elspeth. We learn in the beginning of the book that Alice saw something tremendously shocking but the details of it only revealed nearing the end. Every page keeps me hooked, I don't mind losing sleep in order to figure the mystery out.

It's only the first month of 2025, but I am certain I have found my favorite read of the year.

After You'd Gone by Maggie O' Farrell

A real treat , her first book . I've only recently got into books by this author and This one like her others is excellent .

A distraught young woman boards a train at King's Cross to return to her family in Scotland. Six hours later, she catches sight of something so terrible in a mirror at Waverley Station that she gets on the next train back to London.
A great story , brilliant characters , and intriguing plotline.

Too much frenetic time and narrator hopping for my taste.

Despite all, she encapsulates emotional climates superbly here. Tense and stressful (eternally sad or depressed) over all possible types of happy or joyful states in an exhausting miasma!

After You'd Gone is Maggie O'Farrell's first novel, initially published in 2001, and it is a remarkable one. It's gripping, moving, experimental and satisfying, balancing beautiful sentences with deep characterisation and playfulness. The shifting perspectives take a little getting used to, but is a key part of the book's approach. There are some themes and symbols that are a little overdone (see the axolotl in the tank in the bathroom), but as an agonising portrayal of love, loss and life, it's really impressive.

I've enjoyed some other Maggie O'Farrell books, but hadn't read "After You'd Gone" before.

It took me a while to get into the sudden changes between the different narrators, but their individual stories, and the mystery of what Alice saw, held my attention throughout and I enjoyed reading it.

I can’t believe that I’ve not read this book before, considering how much I’ve loved Maggie O’Farrell’s other books. It’s so beautifully written and incredibly touching. What an amazing book. I loved it!

This is Maggie O'Farrell's first novel?! Damn, she's GOOD! I had never read any of her books but I've been eyeing The Marriage Portrait for a while and I was so excited to finally read a book of hers and wasn't disappointed!