O'Farrell, Maggie 1972-

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O'FARRELL, Maggie 1972-

PERSONAL:

Born 1972, in Northern Ireland. Education: Attended Cambridge University.

ADDRESSES:

Agent—c/o Author's Mail, Viking Press, 375 Hudson St., New York, NY 10014.

CAREER:

Novelist, journalist, and freelance writer. Worked variously as a waitress, chambermaid, cycle courier, teacher, arts administrator for Poetry Society; former deputy literary editor for Independent.

AWARDS, HONORS:

Betty Trask Award, Orange Prize for Fiction, and shortlisted for W. H. Smith's Thumping Good Read Award, all for After You'd Gone.

WRITINGS:

After You'd Gone, Viking Press (New York, NY), 2001.

My Lover's Lover, (London, England), 2002, Viking Press (New York, NY), 2003.

SIDELIGHTS:

Maggie O'Farrell is a freelance writer and novelist who has lived in various parts of the United Kingdom, including Northern Ireland, Scotland, and Wales. She currently resides in London, which is the setting for her internationally acclaimed debut novel After You'd Gone, which received the Orange Prize for Fiction and the Betty Trask Award.

After You'd Gone tells the story of Alice Raikes, a London resident who travels to Scotland to visit her two sisters. After she disembarks from the train, Alice goes into the station's washroom and emerges from it quite upset due to something she has observed in the mirror. Alice is so distraught that she boards the next train for London, without explaining her distress to her siblings. A few hours later, as Alice attempts to cross a busy London street, she is hit by an oncoming car and is rushed to the hospital in a comatose state. Was it truly an accident, or a suicide attempt? The remainder of the novel unfolds as Alice's family gathers around her hospital bedside. During those agonizing, dark hours, many of Alice's personal memories and secrets, as well as those of her family, are revealed.

"O'Farrell performs a traditional, old-fashioned storytelling striptease …[by] artfully juxtaposing sections from the past and the present," noted New York Times book reviewer Maud Casey in her appraisal of After You'd Gone. Casey also said, "The novel is so finely put together that it would be criminal to divulge any of its hard-won plot turns." In a Times Literary Supplement review, Ruth Scurr commented, "This novel may serve as a poignant, unsettling reminder …of the fragility of human freedom." A Publishers Weekly writer praised O'Farrell for "sharply observed details of everyday life and language, original and telling figures of speech, and deftly handled plot twists." Francine Fialkoff of Library Journal thought it "hard to believe that such an assured work comes from a first novelist." "O'Farrell pulls off a warm and suspenseful novel," said Lisa Allardice in her New Statesman article.

O'Farrell's second book, My Lover's Lover, is also set in London. Lily, the chief protagonist, meets her future paramour, Marcus, when he lifts her to her feet after she has tripped over a curb. It is a case of love at first sight, and the two attend a party together that same evening. Their affair moves rapidly as Marcus suggests that Lily move into the spare bedroom of his warehouse flat. When Lily first enters the room, she finds vestiges of the former tenant: an unusual mark on the wall, an exotic trace of perfumed jasmine, a solitary dress hanging in the closet. Marcus is unwilling or unable to speak about his former lover, Sinead, which heightens Lily's sense of curiosity. As their affair deepens, Lily becomes convinced that she sees Sinead's ghost roaming throughout the house, causing her to wonder even more about Marcus and whether or not she is safe with him.

Some reviewers were disappointed when comparing My Lover's Lover with O'Farrell's first novel. New Statesman writer Rachel Cooke found the characters to be "motiveless pencil sketches" and the prose to be "sluggish," yet she also added that the author "is sure-footed when it comes to capturing the strangeness that comes with human intimacy." Noonie Minogue commented in a Times Literary Supplement review that "O'Farrell explores with great panache the gothic-horror potential of relationships …she exploits skillfully …the devices of the supernatural thriller."

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

Library Journal, January 1, 2001, Francine Fialkoff, review of After You'd Gone, p. 156.

New Statesman, May 29, 2000, Lisa Allardice, review of After You'd Gone, p. 57; March 25, 2002, Rachel Cooke, review of My Lover's Lover, pp. 51-52.

Publishers Weekly, January 15, 2001, review of After You'd Gone, p. 50.

Times Literary Supplement, March 31, 2000, Ruth Scurr, review of After You'd Gone, p. 22; March 29, 2002, Noonie Minogue, review of My Lover's Lover, p. 23.