MAGGIE O’FARRELL

Copyright © 2014 Maggie O’Farrell

The right of Maggie O’Farrell to be identified as the Author of the Work has been asserted by her in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

Excerpts from titles first published in Great Britain by Headline Review, an imprint of Headline Publishing Group, as follows:

After You’d Gone © 2000 Maggie O’Farrell

My Lover’s Lover © 2002 Maggie O’Farrell

The Distance Between Us © 2004 Maggie O’Farrell

The Vanishing Act of Esme Lennox © 2006 Maggie O’Farrell

The Hand That First Held Mine © 2010 Maggie O’Farrell

Excerpt from Instructions for a Heatwave © 2013 Maggie O’Farrell, first published in Great Britain by Tinder Press, an imprint of Headline Publishing Group

Excerpt from This Must Be the Place © 2016 Maggie O’Farrell, first published in Great Britain by Tinder Press, an imprint of Headline Publishing Group

‘A note on After You’d Gone’ © 2010 Maggie O’Farrell, first published in After You’d Gone in paperback 2010

‘The Imaginary People in the Kitchen’ © 2013 Maggie O’Farrell, first published in Instructions for a Heatwave in hardback 2013

First published in this omnibus ebook edition in Great Britain in 2014 by Tinder Press

An imprint of HEADLINE PUBLISHING GROUP

Apart from any use permitted under UK copyright law, this publication may only be reproduced, stored, or transmitted, in any form, or by any means, with prior permission in writing of the publishers or, in the case of reprographic production, in accordance with the terms of licences issued by the Copyright Licensing Agency.

All characters in this publication are fictitious and any resemblance to real persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental.

Cataloguing in Publication Data is available from the British Library

eISBN 978 1 4722 2503 0

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www.tinderpress.co.uk

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About the Author

Author photograph © Ben Gold

Maggie O’Farrell is the author of seven novels, AFTER YOU’D GONE, MY LOVER’S LOVER, THE DISTANCE BETWEEN US, which won a Somerset Maugham Award, THE VANISHING ACT OF ESME LENNOX, THE HAND THAT FIRST HELD MINE, which won the 2010 Costa Novel Award, INSTRUCTIONS FOR A HEATWAVE, which was shortlisted for the 2013 Costa Novel Award, and THIS MUST BE THE PLACE. She lives in Edinburgh.

Praise for Maggie O’Farrell:

‘Unputdownable’ Joanna Briscoe, Guardian

‘Instantly appealing . . . magical’ Daily Telegraph

‘I was entranced . . . what a brilliant storyteller she is’ Esther Freud, Daily Telegraph

‘Masterful . . . holds you on an exquisite knife-edge’ Marie Claire

‘Terrific’ Audrey Niffenegger

‘Exquisitely sensual’ Emma Donoghue

‘Beautifully written and thought-provoking’ Grazia

‘A masterful gift for storytelling’ Observer

‘An entirely encompassing and beautiful read’ Heat

‘Spellbinding’ Barbara Trapido

Also by Maggie O’Farrell:

After You’d Gone

My Lover’s Lover

The Distance Between Us

The Vanishing Act of Esme Lennox

The Hand That First Held Mine

Instructions for a Heatwave

This Must Be the Place

About the Book

This free digital collection brings together extracts from Sunday Times bestseller and Costa Novel Award-winner Maggie O’Farrell’s six novels. Whether you’re discovering Maggie O’Farrell for the first time or revisiting your favourite novels, this collection showcases the work of one of the most critically acclaimed and commercially successful writers at work today.

AFTER YOU’D GONE

Alice Raikes boards a train at King’s Cross to visit her sisters in Scotland. Hours later, she steps into the traffic on a busy London road and is taken to hospital in a coma.

Who or what did she see in Edinburgh that made her return so suddenly? Was the accident a suicide attempt? And what exactly do her family, waiting at her bedside, have to hide?

Sliding between different levels of consciousness, Alice listens to the conversations around her, and begins sifting through recollections of her past, and of a recently curtailed love affair.