Maggie O'farrel Quote
Northern Ireland Maggie O'farrell is one of the most outstanding writers in her country and in the United Kingdom today. In her more than two decades of literary career, the British author has received multiple awards thanks to her novels. Her debut feature, After You'd Gone (2000), was the winner of the Betty Trask Award, awarded to authors under the age of 35 residing in the British Commonwealth.
O'farrell later won the Somerset Maugham Award for The Distance Between Us (2004) and the Costa Book Award for The Hand That First Held Mine (2010) In 2020 he published his most awarded book, Hamnet. That novel won the National Book Critics Circle Award for Fiction, the Women's Prize for Fiction, and the Dalkey Literary Awards's Novel of the Year.
Brief biography of Maggie O'farrell
Birth and childhood
Maggie O'farrell was born in Coleraine, County Londonderry, Northern Ireland, on May 27, 1972. Her childhood was spent between Wales and Scotland. She at the age of eight was hospitalized for encephalitis that forced her to miss an entire grade of school. The disease left sequels of physical and emotional instability, long-term weakness plus peaks of discontent and hypersensitivity.
That trauma was reflected in the novel The Distance Between Us. Equally, the experience is described in a chapter called “Cerebelum (1980)” of his autobiographical book I Am, I Am, I Am: Seventeen Brushes with Death (2017) Despite the ailments, the colerainense returned to classes at North Berwick High School before moving on to Brynteg Comprehensive School.
University studies, first jobs and personal life
At the end of the decade 1980, the young Londoner entered Cambridge University. There, two momentous events occurred in his life. First, she became an assiduous reader of English Literature; second, she met William Sutcliffe, who became her husband ten years later. The marriage has had three children and currently resides in Edinburgh.
In the early 90s, O'farrell worked as a waitress, a bellhop, a bike messenger, a teacher, and an art director. Later, she was a journalist in Hong Kong, deputy literary director of The Independent on Sunday and teacher of creative writing at the University of Warwick (Coventry) and at Goldsmiths College (London). She too, has lived in Ireland, Wales, Scotland and Italy.
The novels of Maggie O'farrell
All the novels by the Northern Irish writer raise a question about those issues that, in general, people decide to hide. Among these issues are how to deal with losses and how each person should repair the damage caused. For it, the author creates well-crafted and accurate portraits of individuals and interpersonal relationships.
In this context, the fears, desires and feelings of each character are the vehicle to explain the dynamics of romances and intrafamily communication. In this way, O'farrell has managed to build a narrative style original capable of engaging readers of all ages with apparently common stories… But they are very far from the typical commercial editorial product.
Maggie O'farrell book synopsis
After You'd Gone (2000)
After arriving from a mysterious trip to Edinburgh, Alicia Raikes, a 28-year-old woman, is left in a coma after being hit by a car in London. Once in the hospital, the unconventional narrative moves through three generations of women in the protagonist's family. So, the plot focuses on family secrets, forbidden love affairs and links to terrorism.
My Lover's Lover (2002)
Initially, this book appears to be an ordinary London romance, in which Lily meets the architect Marcus and moves in with him soon after. She occupies the room of Sinead, the missing ex-girlfriend of his new love. Eventually, the idyll changes into a growing uneasiness due to the man's reluctance to talk about his former partner or explain where she is.
The Distance Between Us (2004)
At first, Jake Kildoune a film production assistant, is celebrating Chinese New Year in Hong Kong with his girlfriend Mel. There, the pair get caught up in a street riot and she is critically injured. At the same time, in London, Stella Gilmore catches a glimpse of a red-haired guy on Waterloo Bridge as she returns home from her job at a radio station.
She is very alarmed to see the redhead, to the point that she decides to flee abroad. Meanwhile, the narration shows the very close relationship between Stella and her sister Nina. As events unfold, the lives of all of the aforementioned are completely transformed when they cross paths in the northeast of Scotland.
The Vanishing Act of Esme Lennox (2008)
Maggie O'farrel Quote
Ivy Lockhart, the young protagonist, unexpectedly discovers that he has a great-aunt never mentioned by his relatives. The lady in question—named Esme—has been isolated at Cauldstone, a sanatorium, for more than six decades. Now, when the hospital is closed, Ivy welcomes Esme into her house along with the family secrets long forgotten in the sanitarium.
The Hand That First Held Mine (2010)
The stories of two sets of characters separated by half a century come together in London. Despite the chronological distance, the development slowly reveals the connection between them. In the 50's, Lexie Sinclair finds her life's purpose in Soho (London's West End neighbourhood), while, in present-day London, the thirtysomething artist Elina tries to adjust to her recent motherhood.
Instructions for a Heatwave (2013)
Instructions for a heat wave go back to 1976 Britain, when unusually high temperatures were recorded. At that time, the disappearance of Gretta Riordan's husband, a middle-aged lady, occurred. For this reason, the adult children of the protagonist show up to help her, but each of them comes with their own particular problems and interests.
This Must Be The Place (2016)
The novel's protagonists are Dan and his wife Claudette.; They make up a somewhat disparate marriage. He is from New York; she is a well-known actress who lives in a rural area of Ireland. Although her contexts seem diametrically opposed, the narrative thread jumps from the past to the present to reveal an endearing love story.
Maggie O'farrell's most recent written posts
- I Am, I Am, I Am: Seventeen Brushes with Death (2017). autobiographical book;
- Where Snow Angels Go (2020). Children's literature;
- Hamnet (2020). Novel;
- The Boy Who Lost His Spark (2022). Children's literature;
- The Marriage Portrait (2022). Novel.
Books in Spanish by Maggie O'farrell
- The strange disappearance of Esme Lennox (2007; Salamander Editions, 2009);
- The first hand that held mine (2010; Asteroid Books, 2018);
- Instructions for a heat wave (Salamandra Editions; 2013);
- it has to be here (2016; Asteroid Books, 2017);
- I'm still here (2017; Asteroid Books, 2019);
- Hamnet (2020; Asteroid Books, 2021).