After You'd Gone

When Alice Raikes travels from London to Scotland to visit her family, she witnesses something so disturbing that she abruptly returns home. Hours later, she’s struck by a car and left in a coma—whether by accident or intention, no one is certain. As Alice lies unconscious, her family gathers at her bedside, grappling with grief, confusion, and old wounds. In the quiet hospital room, long-held secrets surface, and what is left unsaid begins to speak volumes.

While her loved ones wrestle with the past, Alice drifts between layers of memory and awareness. She relives her childhood, confronts the complexities of her family relationships, and revisits a passionate love affair that shaped the course of her life. As her story unfolds in fragments and flashbacks, a portrait emerges—one of heartbreak, hope, and the fragile threads that bind us.

Told through shifting timelines and perspectives, After You’d Gone is a deeply emotional and psychologically rich debut from the New York times Best Selling author of the Marriage Portrait and National Book Circle Award Winner Hamnet. Maggie O’Farrell explores love, loss, and the elusive nature of truth in a novel that lingers long after the final page.