The Hand That First Held Mine by Maggie O'Farrell

The Hand That First Held Mine was the winner of the 2010 Costa Novel Award.  The story alternates between 1950s and the present day.  In the 1950s we follow Lexie Sinclair, a young woman fresh out of university and in disgrace.  She finds life in rural Dorset with her parents and siblings claustrophobic and she craves excitement.  Then, a chance meeting with the enigmatic Innes Kent changes everything.  She heads to London where she embarks on a love affair with Innes.  I loved the descriptions of life in 1950s Soho and the colourful characters.  In the present day we follow Ted and Elina, who have just become parents for the first time.  Elina nearly died in childbirth and Ted is haunted by this traumatic experience.  In contrast to the excitement of Lexie’s London life, Ted and Elina's life is sheer drudgery as they adjust to the demands of parent-hood.  At first it is Elina who is struggling, but just as she starts to cope Ted starts to disintegrate.   For most of the story it is unclear how Lexie is linked to Ted and Elina and this made me read on to find out what the connection was - I wasn’t disappointed.  I thoroughly enjoyed this, but I have always been a fan of Maggie O’Farrell.

Elizabeth is Missing by Emma Healey

This book was the winner of the 2014 Costa First Novel Award.  One of the descriptions on the inside cover of the book portrays it as a dark psychological thriller, but I would say it is a story about relationships and loss.  Maud Horsham is eighty-two and suffering from dementia.  She knows she forgets things, but one thing she is certain of is her friend Elizabeth is missing.  No matter who she tells, no one seems to believe her.  As she goes on her quest to find Elizabeth her present gets tangled up with her past.  As the book progresses she is living more and more in the past in a time just after the war when her older sister Sukey disappeared.  Maud’s daughter Helen tries her best to care for her mother and the reader feels Helen’s helplessness, sorrow and guilty irritation.   We see how frightened Maud gets when she forgets things or goes wandering and doesn’t recognise her surroundings.  We see her confusion, mixed with relief, when she finds notes she has written to herself to record the things she is trying to hold on to before the memory slips away.  The author describes all these things convincingly.   I feared it would be a depressing read and it was sad in parts, but also darkly comic.  A thought provoking read.