The Hand That First Held Mine by Maggie O'Farrell

“Listen. The trees in this story are stirring, trembling, readjusting themselves. A breeze is coming in gusts off the sea, and it is almost as if the trees know, in their restlessness, in their head-tossing impatience, that something is about to happen.” 

Maggie O'Farrell has a singular knack for sensing the magnetic fields that push and pull people in love, and in The Hand That First Held Mine, she summons those invisible forces to tell two stories. 

The first is the spirited journey of Lexie Sinclair, a bright, tempestuous woman who finds her way from rural Devon to the center of postwar London's burgeoning art scene. Her force of personality makes her a natural critic (she's a wonderful tour guide to Soho's Bohemian circles), and she soon falls deeply in love. 

Fast forward fifty years and you'll meet Ted and Elina: a contemporary London couple who've just had their first child, both afflicted with a crisis of memory--Elina can recall only bits and pieces of her life before the baby, while Ted fights off memories he can't even recognize. 

O'Farrell alternates these plots artfully, always keeping the incorrigible Lexie in forward motion, while letting Ted and Elina wade further back in time. Inevitably, the two stories collide, and the result is a remarkably taut and unsentimental whole that embraces the unpredictable, both in love and in life.

Right from the opening paragraph (above) you could tell Maggie O'Farrell was going to take us on a special poetic journey with this book. Everything was described in such lyrical detail that you could see it all painted clearly in the back of your eyelids as you are reading along. 

I liked how the two stories were woven together. The 'bizzy spells' were cleverly aligned with the counter story and but it wasn't until towards the end that I saw what was happening - it was done in a way that wasn't glaringly obvious which was nice for a change. 

All the characters played their part well (even though some of them weren't particularly likeable), but my favourite character was definitely Lexie - smart, bold, and confident - I loved seeing her character develop over time (towards the end of the book when she is swimming in the ocean thinking of her son was really beautifully written).

For those who are thinking of reading this book - stick with it. It isn't until a few chapters in that you get the hang of the two story lines (and the memory loss of Ted and Elina) but once you see where they are heading and get a feel for the characters and time/setting, you will see it is worth seeing through until the end.