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!