Author Spotlight: Maggie O'Farrell

The release of the movie Hamnet has thrown author Maggie O’Farrell into the spotlight. She wrote the novel, which was published to acclaim in 2020, and co-wrote the screenplay with director Chloé Zhao. Lovers of good fiction will recognise Maggie O’Farrell as an author you can always depend on for an intelligent but also gripping read. Here’s a little about eight of her books, all available from Hastings Libraries.

The Distance Between Us (2004) follows two main characters who each run away from their lives: Jake escapes from Hong Kong when a crowd of Chinese New Year revellers turns dangerous; and Stella who spotting a man in London that she remembers from long ago, hurries to Scotland in search of the father she never knew. It’s a gripping and haunting read with characters you really care for.

The Vanishing Act of Esme Lennox (2006) is a dual time-frame story, partly set in the 1930s and partly set in the present day. Esme has a tragic story that has left her abandoned by her family in a mental hospital. Sixty years later, the hospital is releasing her to the only relative able to look after her - Iris, a young woman who never knew Esme existed. A powerful story about family and the shame and secrets they carry.

The Hand That First Held Mine (2010) takes us to the 1950s Soho art scene where Lexie makes a new life with sophisticated Innes at her side. Meanwhile in the present day, Elina and Ted are struggling with the demands of new parenthood. For Elina being a mother seems to take over her sense of self as an artist, while Ted is disturbed by childhood memories which don’t quite make sense, sending him on a quest for answers. Another exquisitely written novel about family and memory.

Instructions for a Heatwave (2013) takes us to London in the sweltering summer of 1976 and the pressure it puts on the Riordan family. Father Robert says he’s just popping out for a newspaper, but doesn’t return. His wife, Gretta calls home her children – two estranged daughters and a son with a marriage in trouble. A story of family secrets, taking us to New York as well as a village on the coast of Ireland, to reveal “the fault lines over which we build our lives”.

This Must Be the Place (2016) follows the family life of Daniel and Claudette. Daniel is an American with children in California he never sees; Claudette is a reclusive former film star who keeps a gun to ward off interlopers. Their idyllic life in rural Ireland is threatened by a secret from Daniel’s past. A complex novel that takes the reader across different continents, capturing an extraordinary family, and laced with wit and affection.

I Am, I Am, I Am: seventeen brushes with death is O’Farrell’s 2017 memoir, recounting an extraordinary number of near-death experiences starting with a childhood illness that she wasn’t expected to survive, through to a terrifying experience on a secluded path and a childbirth that went badly wrong – to name but three. Perhaps it’s these experiences that have shaped her fiction. The book certainly makes you realise just how much every second counts.

Hamnet (2020), which won the Women’s Prize for Fiction, takes us back to the unusual woman, Agnes Hathaway, who stole William Shakespeare’s heart, both fascinating characters. It’s a dual time-frame story, first filling in the background of their relationship, while flipping forwards to 1580 as the Black Death carries a hidden theat. We meet the young boy, Hamnet, desperate to save his sister, but his mother is nowhere to be found. A powerful story about grief, creativity and family.

The Marriage Portrait (2022) is another historical novel taking us to Renaissance Italy and the story behind Robert Browning’s famous poem “My Last Duchess”. Lucrezia is a young duke’s daughter, still in her teens when she’s married off to Alfonso, a powerful man who commissions a portrait of his new wife. There is something not quite right about her new husband, and young Lucrezia must live by her wits to save her own life. An evocative, page-turning read.

Maggie O’Farrell’s new book Land, a story that takes us to the mapping of Ireland in the 1800s, not long after the Great Famine, is due out later this year.

Posted by JAM

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