{"product_id":"the-hand-that-first-held-mine-9780547423180","title":"The Hand That First Held Mine","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eFrom the best-selling author of \u003cem\u003eHamnet\u003c\/em\u003e and \u003cem\u003eThe Marriage Portrait\u003c\/em\u003e comes a spellbinding novel of two women connected across fifty years by art, love, betrayals, secrets, and motherhood.\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e\"An exquisitely sensual tale of love, motherhood, and other forms of madness, \u003cem\u003eThe Hand That First Held Mine\u003c\/em\u003e will unsettle, move, and haunt you.\" --Emma Donoghue, author of \u003cem\u003eRoom\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eLexie Sinclair is plotting an extraordinary life for herself.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eHedged in by her parents' genteel country life, she plans her escape to London. There, she takes up with Innes Kent, a magazine editor who introduces her to the thrilling, underground world of bohemian, post-war Soho. She learns to be a reporter, to know art and artists, to embrace her life fully and with a deep love at the center of it. And when she finds herself pregnant, she doesn't hesitate to have the baby on her own.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eLater, in present-day London, a young painter named Elina dizzily navigates the first weeks of motherhood. She doesn't recognize herself: she finds herself walking outside with no shoes; she goes to the restaurant for lunch at nine in the morning; she can't recall the small matter of giving birth. But for her boyfriend, Ted, fatherhood is calling up lost memories, with images he cannot place.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eAs Ted's memories become more disconcerting and more frequent, it seems that something might connect these two stories--these two women--something that becomes all the more heartbreaking and beautiful as they all hurtle toward its revelation.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003ePraised by \u003cem\u003eThe Washington Post\u003c\/em\u003e as a \"breathtaking, heart-breaking creation,\" \u003cem\u003eThe Hand That First Held Mine\u003c\/em\u003e is a gorgeous and tenderly wrought story about the ways in which love and beauty bind us together. It is a gorgeous inquiry into the ways we make and unmake our lives, who we know ourselves to be, and how even our most accidental legacies connect us.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAbout the Author\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003eMAGGIE O'FARRELL is the author of four previous novels, including the acclaimed \u003ci\u003eThe Vanishing Act of Esme Lennox\u003c\/i\u003e, which was a B\u0026amp;N\u003ci\u003e\u003c\/i\u003eRecommends Pick, and \u003ci\u003eAfter You'd Gone\u003c\/i\u003e. Born in Northern Ireland in 1972, O'Farrell grew up in Wales and Scotland. She has two children.\u003cbr\u003e","brand":"Houghton Mifflin","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":50631341801746,"sku":"9780547423180","price":13.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0831\/4771\/8930\/files\/img_d9744197-0dba-4cda-93a4-ffd38233a0e2.jpg?v=1732769954","url":"https:\/\/surprise-castle.myshopify.com\/products\/the-hand-that-first-held-mine-9780547423180","provider":"Surprise Castle","version":"1.0","type":"link"}