The Hand That First Held Mine

By Maggie O’Farrell

It is a beautiful thing, when an author devotes and entire book to a single moment in a person’s life. When the trauma of a situation, which we would not likely be able to look on otherwise, is patiently shown us in a rich and engaging story.

In The Hand That First Held Mine Maggie O’Farrell walks us into a single, life-defining moment by showing us the story of each character leading us into it. She deftly weaves a history of two generations, opening the lives of each character in stunning detail. She shows us how our choices always lead to places unknown. Places which may be excavated, the material of psychological archeology, later through the lives of those who come after us.

Because we do, as O’Farrell suggests, leave breadcrumbs trailing behind our life, with intention or not, which can lead others to our stories. Sometimes, a trauma is too much for us to absorb in a moment. Or in a single lifetime. Sometimes, many times, it takes generations to even be able to look at a trauma, let alone step into it’s healing path.

But this opening to the story. This facing, and unfolding and telling. These are the pieces of healing. As we bring together the broken pieces which might otherwise scatter, left in our psyches like so much shrapnel, we deftly draw them out, with the tweezers of a beautiful story, and bring healing to the wound.