Shortlisted for the Women's Prize for Fiction 2023
A Reese's Bookclub December Pick (2022)
An Instant Sunday Times, New York Times and Irish Times Bestseller (August 2022)
A Guardian and LitHub Book of the Year (December 2022)

'Every bit as evocative and spellbinding as Hamnet. O'Farrell, thank God, just seems to be getting better and better' i newspaper

'Her narrative enchantment will wrest suspense and surprise out of a death foretold' Financial Times

'Ingenious, inventive, humane, wry, truthful . . . better than her last novel' Scotsman

'Finely written and vividly imagined' Guardian

'In O'Farrell's hands, historical detail comes alive' Spectator

Winter, 1561. Lucrezia, Duchess of Ferrara, is taken on an unexpected visit to a country villa by her husband, Alfonso. As they sit down to dinner it occurs to Lucrezia that Alfonso has a sinister purpose in bringing her here. He intends to kill her.

Lucrezia is sixteen years old, and has led a sheltered life locked away inside Florence's grandest palazzo. Here, in this remote villa, she is entirely at the mercy of her increasingly erratic husband.

What is Lucrezia to do with this sudden knowledge? What chance does she have against Alfonso, ruler of a province, and a trained soldier? How can she ensure her survival.

The Marriage Portrait is an unforgettable reimagining of the life of a young woman whose proximity to power places her in mortal danger.

WINNER OF THE 2020 WOMEN'S PRIZE FOR FICTION - THE NO. 1 BESTSELLER 2021
'Richly sensuous... something special' The Sunday Times
'A thing of shimmering wonder' David Mitchell

TWO EXTRAORDINARY PEOPLE. A LOVE THAT DRAWS THEM TOGETHER. A LOSS THAT THREATENS TO TEAR THEM APART.

On a summer's day in 1596, a young girl in Stratford-upon-Avon takes to her bed with a sudden fever. Her twin brother, Hamnet, searches everywhere for help. Why is nobody at home?

Their mother, Agnes, is over a mile away, in the garden where she grows medicinal herbs. Their father is working in London.

Neither parent knows that Hamnet will not survive the week.

Hamnet is a novel inspired by the son of a famous playwright: a boy whose life has been all but forgotten, but whose name was given to one of the most celebrated plays ever written.

From the Costa Award winning Maggie O'Farrell comes the Sunday Times Top Ten bestseller MY LOVER'S LOVER, an intense, unnerving and passionate story of betrayal, loss and love, with all the frisson and psychological intensity of Rebecca.

When Lily moves into Marcus's flat and plunges headlong into a relationship, she must contend not merely with the disapproval of flatmate Aidan, but with a more intangible, hostile presence. Could it be that Sinead, Marcus's ex, is trying to communicate with her? When Lily begins to 'see' Sinead, first about the flat, and then on the streets of London, she must question not merely her sanity, but whether the man she loves is someone she can, or indeed ought, to live with at all.

From the Costa Award winning, bestselling author of THIS MUST BE THE PLACE and I AM, I AM, I AM, comes an intense, breathtakingly accomplished story of a woman's life stolen, and reclaimed.

'Unputdownable' Ali Smith

Edinburgh in the 1930s. The Lennox family is having trouble with its youngest daughter. Esme is outspoken, unconventional, and repeatedly embarrasses them in polite society. Something will have to be done.

Years later, a young woman named Iris Lockhart receives a letter informing her that she has a great-aunt in a psychiatric unit who is about to be released.

Iris has never heard of Esme Lennox and the one person who should know more, her grandmother Kitty, seems unable to answer Iris's questions. What could Esme have done to warrant a lifetime in an institution? And how is it possible for a person to be so completely erased from a family's history?

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. Follow #DiscoverMaggie to find out more.

Special bonus material: find out what inspired Maggie to write her haunting debut, After You'd Gone, and the bestselling Instructions for a Heatwave.

AS FEATURED ON DESERT ISLAND DISCS, BIG SCOTTISH BOOK CLUB AND THE ZOE BALL BOOKCLUB, A BOOK OF THE YEAR IN THE SUNDAY TIMES, THE TIMES, GUARDIAN, IRISH TIMES, OBSERVER, RED and THE TELEGRAPH.
*SHORTLISTED FOR THE PEN ACKERLEY PRIZE FOR MEMOIR AND AUTOBIOGRAPHY 2018*

I AM, I AM, I AM is a memoir with a difference - the unputdownable story of an extraordinary woman's life in near-death experiences. Insightful, inspirational, gorgeously written, it is a book to be read at a sitting, a story you finish newly conscious of life's fragility, determined to make every heartbeat count.

A childhood illness she was not expected to survive. A teenage yearning to escape that nearly ended in disaster. A terrifying encounter on a remote path. A mismanaged labour in an understaffed hospital. Shocking, electric, unforgettable, this is the extraordinary memoir from Costa Novel-Award winner and Sunday Timesbestselling author Maggie O'Farrell. It is a book to make you question yourself. What would you do if your life was in danger, and what would you stand to lose?

A top-ten bestseller 2016, THIS MUST BE THE PLACE by Maggie O'Farrell crosses time zones and continents to reveal an extraordinary portrait of a marriage. 'A complex, riveting novel of love and hope that grips at the heart' The Sunday Times

A reclusive ex-film star living in the wilds of Ireland, Claudette Wells is a woman whose first instinct, when a stranger approaches her home, is to reach for her shotgun. Why is she so fiercely protective of her family, and what made her walk out of her cinematic career when she had the whole world at her feet?

Her husband Daniel, reeling from a discovery about a woman he last saw twenty years ago, is about to make an exit of his own. It is a journey that will send him off-course, far away from the life he and Claudette have made together. Will their love for one another be enough to bring Daniel back home?

Winner of the 2010 Costa Novel Award and a Sunday Times bestseller, THE HAND THAT FIRST HELD MINE by Maggie O'Farrell is a gorgeously written story of love and motherhood from the author of HAMNET and I AM, I AM, I AM.

When the sophisticated Innes Kent turns up on her doorstep, Lexie Sinclair realises she cannot wait any longer for her life to begin, and leaves for London. There, at the heart of the 1950s Soho art scene, she carves out a new life. In the present day, Elina and Ted are reeling from the difficult birth of their first child. Elina struggles to reconcile the demands of motherhood with her sense of herself as an artist, and Ted is disturbed by memories of his own childhood that don't tally with his parents' version of events. As Ted begins to search for answers, an extraordinary portrait of two women is revealed, separated by fifty years, but connected in ways that neither could ever have expected.

Daniel Sullivan y Claudette Wells son una pareja atípica: él es de Nueva York y tiene dos hijos en California pero vive en la campiña irlandesa; ella es una estrella de cine que, en un momento dado, decidió cambiar los rodajes por la vida en el campo, la fama por el anonimato. Ambos son razonablemente felices.

Tiene que ser aquí cruza continentes y atraviesa husos horarios siguiendo a un heterogéneo grupo de personajes durante varias décadas para trazar el extraordinario retrato de una pareja, de las fuerzas que la unen y de las presiones que amenazan con separarla. Una epopeya íntima y cautivadora sobre aquello que abandonamos y aquello en lo que nos convertimos mientras buscamos nuestro lugar en el mundo.

Una novela, la séptima de la autora, que ha confirmado a Maggie O’Farrell como una de las más fascinantes narradoras británicas actuales.

«El texto es hermoso y rezuma coherencia, empapado con los colores, los perfumes, la imaginería del espíritu irlandés y la belleza de sus paisajes incluso cuando no aparecen en los encuadres. (...) O'Farrell es buena, sí.» Robert Saladrigas (Cultura|s, La Vanguardia)

«Una de las novelas del año (...), un libro precioso de lectura obligada.»Óscar López (Cadena SER)

«Un emocionante y calidoscópico relato a muchas voces sobre las relaciones de pareja, el peso del pasado, la identidad y la posibilidad de cambiar. Y de redimirnos.»Justo Barranco (La Vanguardia)

«Esta es la historia de una catástrofe en fragmentos, así que la discontinuidad nos permite entender que, en realidad, nadie cambia aunque todo cambie a su alrededor.» Sergi Sánchez (El Periódico)

«La prosa de Maggie O’Farrell es elegante y segura, destila conocimiento psicológico y arroja una mirada dura pero simpática sobre amor y el dolor, con una épica por momentos deslumbrante.» Luis M. Alonso (La Nueva España)

«Los casos en lo que se cuenta una historia más o menos mundana y se consigue un resultado tan espectacular como el de "Tiene que ser aquí" no son muy frecuentes.» Óscar Mora (Diario Información)

«Estamos ante un trabajo literario que enamora, protagonizado por personajes de carne y hueso que cautiva de principio a fin, a pesar de sus lastres emocionales, o precisamente porque nos identificamos con ellos, los sentimos próximos.» Ángela Belmar (La Opinión de Murcia)

«La virtuosa manera en que la autora describe sus referencias logra situar rápidamente al lector, así como despertar el interés en ese personaje secundario que acaba por seducirlo tanto como los demás.» Ana Punset (Diario de Tarragona)

«La frescura con la que está escrita y la original estructura narrativa, con capítulos narrados por diferentes personajes, convierten este relato en

El matrimonio era su destino. Ahora tendrá que sobrevivir a él. La esperadísima nueva novela de Maggie O’Farrell tras el gran éxito internacional de Hamnet.

Florencia, mediados del siglo XVI. Lucrezia, tercera hija del gran duque Cosimo de’ Medici, es una niña callada y perspicaz, con un singular talento para el dibujo, que disfruta de su discreto y tranquilo lugar en el palazzo. Pero cuando muere su hermana Maria, justo antes de casarse con Alfonso d’Este, primogénito del duque de Ferrara, Lucrezia se convierte inesperadamente en el centro de atención: el duque se apresura a pedir su mano, y su padre a aceptarla. Poco después, con solo quince años, se traslada a la corte de Ferrara, donde es recibida con recelo. Su marido, doce años mayor, es un enigma: ¿es en realidad el hombre sensible y comprensivo que le pareció al principio o un déspota implacable al que todos temen? Lo único que está claro es lo que se espera de ella: que proporcione cuanto antes un heredero que asegure la continuidad del título.

Con la misma belleza y emoción con las que nos cautivó en Hamnet, Maggie O’Farrell vuelve a demostrar su inigualable talento para adentrarse en los recovecos del pasado en El retrato de casada, una novela que reinterpreta desde la ficción un capítulo de la Italia renacentista y narra la lucha contra el destino de una joven asombrosa.

«O’Farrell es simplemente excepcional (…) Delicadamente escrita y llena de imágenes vívidas.» The Guardian

«Ingeniosa, imaginativa, humana, irónica, verdadera… todavía mejor que su última novela.» Scotsman

«Esta cautivadora historia sobre el poder, la política y la lucha de una mujer por su supervivencia es otra obra maestra de la autora.» The Globe and Mail

«Lo que hace tan interesantes sus novelas es su apuesta por cambiar siempre de ángulo o decidirse por el más inesperado, su estilo lírico y delicado aunque directo y estremecedor, su atención al detalle producto de una investigación profunda que, sin embargo, llega con gran naturalidad a la página.» Mariana Enriquez

«Lo más notable de Maggie O’Farrell no es el amenazante, claustrofóbico, estético fondo histórico que sirve de base a 'El retrato de casada', sino lo que Marguerite Yourcenar llama el tono de una ficción histórica.» Lourdes Ventura (El Cultural)

«Si para algo tiene destreza Maggie O'Farrell es para trazar personajes femeninos, para dotarlos de vida.» Lara Hermoso (Efecto Doppler - RNE)

«O’Farrell es una gran contadora de historias.» Mey Zamora.

«Vuelve a sobresalir O’Farrell en el estilo delicado, en el ritmo, en la construcción de ambientes.» Adolfo Torrecilla.

«Es la calidad narrativa de O'Farrell, su brillante capacidad para la introspección psicológica y su plástica recreación del pasado, la que engancha al lector.