After You’d Gone

By: Maggie O'Farrell

Narrated by: Elle Newlands

Alice Raikes takes a train from London to Scotland to visit her family, but when she gets there she witnesses something so shocking that she insists on returning to London immediately. A few hours later, Alice is lying in a coma after an accident that may or may not have been a suicide attempt. Alice’s family gathers at her bedside and as they wait, argue, and remember, long-buried tensions emerge. The more they talk, the more they seem to conceal. Alice, meanwhile, slides between varying levels of consciousness, recalling her past and a love affair that recently ended.

A riveting story that skips through time and interweaves multiple points of view, After You’d Gone is a novel of stunning psychological depth and marks the debut of a major literary talent.

©2000 Maggie O'Farrell (P)2021 Blackstone Publishing

Ending

The ending of this book was quite unsatisfying. The rest of the story was good, although hard to follow at times. I would recommend it in spite of the ending.

Heartfelt writing that is matched by the narrator

This book might be better read than listened to. As with some other Maggie O’Farrell works, it moves between the past and the present with no real segues. I imagine that the actual book might have some symbol of demarcation when this happens. The listener needs to stay alert to these shifts and I eventually got used to it. Additionally, the voice of Alice, the main character, is sometimes in the third person but other times in the first person! All that being said, it is a wonderful and heart breaking story centering on a young Scottish woman, her sisters, her parents (with their own complex relationship) and her eventual husband. Interwoven are scenes in which Alice is in a coma - one of several tragedies at the heart of this riveting novel.

An intricate story told from several points of vie

"What are you supposed to do with all of the love you have for somebody, if that person is no longer there?”

Alice takes the train to Scotland to visit her family. Shortly after her arrival she is a witness to something that shocks her to her core. Completely distraught, Alice insists on leaving immediately and returns to London. Within hours of her return, Alice is the victim in a car accident the result of which is her being unconscious, in the hospital. Did she step in front of that vehicle accidentally or was it a suicide attempt?

In the hospital, in a coma, we learn of Alice’s family history, her background, her life and her love, as well as her loss and her grief. No one really knows to what extent Alice can hear her surroundings. As her family sits with her and talk among themselves, Alice learns the secret that her family has held for a lifetime.

An intricate, interwoven plot with the story told from several points of view, "After You’d Gone" hooks the reader from the beginning. A profoundly moving and compassionate story. Captivating. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ O’Farrell’s prose and writing style have me completely under her spell. I am on a mission to read everything that she has ever written (7/11 thus far). NOTE: After You’d Gone is O’Farrell’s debut novel from 2002.

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Unacceptable word choice

Overall story was fine. Disappointed that author carelessly used the R word twice. It should never be used.

Too jumpy for an audio book.

I should have read the reviews. I’m quitting half way thru. Wish there were “ chapter markers” or longer pauses between scenarios.