Showing results by author "Maggie OFarrell" in All Categories

On a summer's day in 1596, a young girl in Stratford-upon-Avon takes to her bed with a fever. Her twin brother, Hamnet, searches everywhere for help. Why is nobody at home? Their mother, Agnes, is over a mile away, in the garden where she grows medicinal herbs. Their father is working in London. Neither parent knows that one of the children will not survive the week.

When the bohemian, sophisticated Innes Kent turns up by chance on her doorstep, Lexie Sinclair realises she cannot wait any longer for her life to begin, and leaves for London. There, at the heart of the 1950s Soho art scene, she carves out a new life for herself, with Innes at her side. In the present day, Elina and Ted are reeling from the difficult birth of their first child.

Florence, the 1560s. Lucrezia, third daughter of Cosimo de' Medici, is free to wander the palazzo at will, wondering at its treasures and observing its clandestine workings. But when her older sister dies on the eve of marriage to Alfonso d'Este, ruler of Ferrara, Modena and Reggio, Lucrezia is thrust unwittingly into the limelight: the duke is quick to request her hand in marriage and her father to accept on her behalf.

On a summer's day in 1596, a young girl in Stratford-upon-Avon takes to her bed with a sudden fever. Her twin brother, Hamnet, searches everywhere for help. Why is nobody at home? Their mother, Agnes, is over a mile away, in the garden where she grows medicinal herbs. Their father is working in London. Neither parent knows that Hamnet will not survive the week. Hamnet is a novel inspired by the son of a famous playwright: a boy whose life has been all but forgotten, but whose name was given to one of the most celebrated plays ever written.

Audible Exclusive. Maggie O'Farrell joins us to talk about This Must Be the Place....

Agnes, una muchacha peculiar que parece no rendir cuentas a nadie y que es capaz de crear misteriosos remedios con sencillas combinaciones de plantas, es la comidilla de Stratford, un pequeño pueblo de Inglaterra. Cuando conoce a un joven preceptor de latín igual de extraordinario que ella, se da cuenta enseguida de que están llamados a formar una familia. Pero su matrimonio se verá puesto a prueba, primero por sus parientes y después por una inesperada desgracia.

A reclusive ex-film star living in the wilds of Ireland, Claudette Wells is a woman whose first instinct, when a stranger approaches her home, is to reach for her shotgun. Why is she so fiercely protective of her family, and what made her walk out of her cinematic career when she had the whole world at her feet? Her husband, Daniel, reeling from a discovery about a woman he last saw 20 years ago, is about to make an exit of his own. It is a journey that will send him off-course, far away from the life he and Claudette have made together.

On a cold London afternoon, Stella encounters a man she has not seen for many years, whose face she instantly recognises or thinks she does. At exactly the same moment, in Hong Kong, Jake is realising the crowd around him, celebrating Chinese New Year, is about to turn dangerous.

A reclusive ex-film star living in the wilds of Ireland, Claudette Wells is a woman whose first instinct, when a stranger approaches her home, is to reach for her shotgun. Why is she so fiercely protective of her family, and what made her walk out of her cinematic career when she had the whole world at her feet? Her husband Daniel, reeling from a discovery about a woman he last saw twenty years ago, is about to make an exit of his own. It is a journey that will send him off-course, far away from the life he and Claudette have made together.

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.

When Lily moves into Marcus' flat, she is intrigued by signs of his recently departed ex-lover. A single dress left hanging in the wardrobe, a mysterious mark on the wall, the lingering odour of jasmine. Who was this woman? And what exactly were the circumstances of her sudden disappearance? It doesn't take long for Lily's curiosity to grow into an all-pervading obsession.

A gorgeously written story of love and motherhood with stunning emotional punch - this is Maggie O'Farrell doing what she does better than anyone.This is the story of two women - Lexie and Elina, a journalist and a painter - separated by fifty years, but linked by a story of love, family secrets and deception, that touches powerfully on the theme of motherhood. It is acclaimed and bestselling author Maggie O'Farrell's most emotionally satisfying novel to date.

Maggie O'Farrell's second novel is an intense, unnerving and passionate story of betrayal, loss and love, with all the frisson and psychological intensity of 'Rebecca'. When Lily moves into Marcus's flat and plunges headlong into a relationship, she must contend not merely with the disapproval of flatmate Aidan, but with a more intangible, hostile presence. Could it be that Sinead, Marcus's ex, is trying to communicate with her?

The stunning new novel from Costa-Novel-Award-winning novelist Maggie O'Farrell: a portrait of an Irish family in crisis in the legendary heatwave of 1976.

Edinburgh in the 1930s. The Lennox family is having trouble with its youngest daughter. Esme is outspoken, unconventional, and repeatedly embarrasses them in polite society. Even Kitty, Esme's beloved sister, is beginning to lose patience. Something will have to be done.

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, where a traffic accident leaves her in a coma.'AfterYou'd Gone' follows Alice's mental journey into how she came to be this way, as she twists together threads of memory in a plot that grips from the outset.

At the bottom of a great stone staircase, dressed in her mother's black lace evening dress, twisted in murderous death, lies Janet. So end the 16 years of Janet's short life. A life spent in a draughty Scottish castle, where roses will not grow, and a jackdaw decides to live in the doll's house. A life peopled by prettier, smoother-haired siblings, a Nanny with a face like the North Sea and the peculiar, whisky-swigging Cousin Lila. A life where Janet is perpetually misunderstood - and must turn from people, to animals, to books, to her own wild and wonderful imagination.

Florenz, 1557: Lucrezia de' Medici ist gerade einmal zwölf Jahre alt, als ihr Vater sie per Brief mit Alfonso II. d'Este verlobt. Eigentlich war ihre ältere Schwester Maria dem Herzog von Ferrara versprochen, doch als diese überraschend verstirbt, tritt Lucrezia an ihre Stelle. Und wider Erwarten eröffnet sich der jungen Herzogin in Ferrara eine neue Welt: Plötzlich darf sie, die ihrer Familie immer als zu eigensinnig, zu störrisch und sensibel galt, selbst entscheiden, ob sie durch die Gärten flanieren oder sich ihrer geliebten Staffelei zuwenden will.

17 Berührungen mit dem Tod. An den unterschiedlichsten Orten, zu unterschiedlichen Zeiten lenkte der Tod Maggie O'Farrells Leben: Als sie im Alter von 8 Jahren beinah an einer unbekannten Virusinfektion starb. Als sie mit 15 aus Übermut und Freiheitsdrang einen törichten Fehler beging. Oder als sie bei der Geburt ihres ersten Kindes fast gestorben wäre. Maggie O'Farrells autobiographische Geschichte, die sie ursprünglich für ihre kranke Tochter erzählt hat, vermittelt das Gefühl, dass jeder Herzschlag zählt. "Fast gestorben zu sein ist nichts Einmaliges oder Besonderes. Der Tod begegnet uns ständig; wohl jeder war ihm schon einmal nahe, vielleicht ohne es zu merken."

A childhood illness she was not expected to survive. A teenage yearning to escape that nearly ended in disaster. A terrifying encounter on a remote path. A mismanaged labour in an understaffed hospital. Shocking, electric, unforgettable, this is the extraordinary memoir from Costa Novel-Award winner and Sunday Times best-selling author Maggie O'Farrell. It is a book to make you question yourself. What would you do if your life was in danger, and what would you stand to lose?