The Hand That First Held Mine

11 hrs. 26 min.

Romance & Prose

Language Russian

Author Maggie O'Farrell

Narrator Olga Pletnyova

Description

When the young Lexi, as if from nowhere, suddenly finds herself face to face with a mysterious, carefree Kent Innes, she realizes she can no longer endure her dull existence in the English backwoods. For Lexi, a new life begins in London’s Soho. It’s the 1950s—years of change. Lexi dreams of a wild life, full of great deeds, but at first she’s met with an awful little room and work as a lift operator in a posh department store. But soon everything will change…

In Elina’s life—half a century later than Lexi’s—everything changes too. Elina is an artist who does her best to combine creativity with motherhood, yet despair increasingly crashes over her…

In Ted’s memory, a beautiful, kind woman keeps appearing again and again. Who is she, and why can’t he remember anything about her?…

This engrossing novel about love, motherhood, war, and childhood secrets moves back and forth through time—sweeping from the 1950s into the present day and back again. Maggie O’Farrell weaves two stories that, at first glance, seem to have nothing in common, and in the finale they merge into one, exploding with real catharsis.

A novel of the highest literary level, awarded the Costa Prize in 2010.