This Must Be the Place

by Maggie O'Farrell

A dazzling novel from bestselling writer Maggie O'Farrell, winner of the Costa Novel Award—an irresistible love story that crisscrosses continents and time zones as it captures an extraordinary marriage, and an unforgettable family, with wit, humor, and deep affection.

Meet Daniel Sullivan, a man with a complicated life. A New Yorker living in the wilds of Ireland, he has children he never sees in California, a father he loathes in Brooklyn, and a wife, Claudette, who is a reclusive ex–film star given to pulling a gun on anyone who ventures up their driveway. Claudette was once the most glamorous and infamous woman in cinema before she staged her own disappearance and retreated to blissful seclusion in an Irish farmhouse.

But the life Daniel and Claudette have so carefully constructed is about to be disrupted by an unexpected discovery about a woman Daniel lost touch with twenty years ago. This revelation will send him off-course, far away from wife, children and home. Will his love for Claudette be enough to bring him back?

This Must be the Place is a novel about family, identity, and true love: an intimately drawn portrait of a marriage, both the forces that hold it together and the pressures that drive it apart. O'Farrell writes with complexity, insight, and laugh-out-loud humor in a narrative that hurtles forward with powerful velocity and emotion. This Must be the Place is a sophisticated, spellbinding summer read from one of the UK's most highly acclaimed and best-loved novelists.

Genres: Fiction, Book Club, Contemporary, Ireland, Literary Fiction, Audiobook, Romance

401 pages, Kindle Edition

First published May 17, 2016

About the author

Maggie O'Farrell (born 1972, Coleraine Northern Ireland) is a British author of contemporary fiction, who features in Waterstones' 25 Authors for the Future. It is possible to identify several common themes in her novels - the relationship between sisters is one, another is loss and the psychological impact of those losses on the lives of her characters.

Reviews

[Diane S ☔ · Rating 5 out of 5]

I absolutely loved this book, which is kind of funny because when I first started reading it I wasn't sure if I would even like it. Oh, the writing was brilliant right from the start, but anyone reading my reviews knows how frustrating I find jumping timelines. This book does it alot, the past, the present, the future, sometimes skipping several years and introducing new characters. At the heart this is the story of Claudette and Daniel, fell in love with Daniel in all his maddening humanness, but was worried that the way this was written would keep me from getting closer to understanding the characters. But in this author's capable hands it all worked for me, I could see how amazingly she built this story, that eventually all, even that which seemed unnecessary at the time, has meaning and taken together I felt I received a wonderful look at two people and their marriage.,

What struck me about this book is how flawed these people were, so real, the pasts that took them to the present, and the roadblocks, the unexpected role of fate, and how it can derail even the best intentioned. How difficult it is to overcome these twists and how despairing a person can become, how hard to look positive at a future. It was their very real humanness and very realistic problems and happenings that made me love this book. The characters, even the lesser characters were amazing, all coping with very real life and its incidentals. Loved the children, even their personalities were wonderfully formed, their defects very real. At books end I felt I was given a very insightful look at a marriage, at two lives, how they were formed and the mistakes and triumphs of full if not always happy lives lived. This author is a true treasure.

ARC from publisher.

[Dem · Rating 2 out of 5]

I am a fan of Maggie O' Farrell's novels but this book was all over the place for me and I just didn't come to grips with any of the characters or the constant shifts in time and place.

I find O' Farrells writing normally quirky and engaging but this book left me feeling frustrated the further along I read. I found the story so disjointed that picking up the book felt like a chore and the only reason I did finish the book was because of the prose. I didn't engage with the plot or the characters and couldn't find a sense of time or place in the novel. It wasn't as intriguing or satisfying as her previous works and I felt the storyline was weak and had no direction.
One of my all time favourite books was The Vanishing Act of Esme Lennox Maggie O'Farrell which I found captivating and as intricately written.

I had saved This Must Be the Place for my holidays hoping for another experience of The Vanishing Act of Esme Lennox but sadly I was left feeling disappointed.

My thanks to Net Galley for the opportunity to read this advance copy in return for an honest review.

[Angela M · Rating 5 out of 5]

I wish I could adequately describe how brilliantly Maggie O'Farrell portrays relationships - these love stories. I was first introduced to Maggie O'Farrell's writing in The Hand That First Held Mine and I was taken at first page and then all over again when I read The Vanishing Act of Esme Lennox. There is something about how this woman open her novels , something about the writing that draws me in and then her characters and their stories take over my life for a few days.

What was different with this book for me, at first was that I didn't connect with the characters right away - a married couple , Daniel , living in a secluded house in Donegal, Ireland with his wife , Claudette and their children . The narratives alternate between them at first but then there are multiple narrators in different places - New York , London , San Francisco, India, and more , at different times and not in chronological order. Somehow I wasn't confused . I got what was happening when and where but I felt at a distance for a while from these characters . At some point , I think it was from the narrative of Daniel's daughter Phoebe, from his first marriage , onwards that I felt that same intimate, in their thoughts , connection that I felt with characters in other books by O'Farrell . The shifting from past to present felt familiar because it is similar to shifts in time the aforementioned books. It is a technique that affords the reader the ability to stay in the present with the characters while giving us insight into how they got here. But it's more than just the shifting times. There are characters other than Daniel and Claudette that I connected with - their children, but it isn't really their stories . It's how and when they are a part of Daniel and Claudette's past that divulges more and more about them that makes these chapters meaningful. Through all of the time shifts and changes in narrators, you end up with in depth character studies which touch your emotions as well as your intellect.

These complex characters make for complex relationships and this is what made them feel so much like real people and real things in our lives . This is about a couple , about their pasts and the secrets they carry, about remorse, about personal crises , about coping with grief , about how all of this shapes who they are as individuals and who they are together . They are not perfect and there is plenty about them not to like, but yet I couldn't help caring about these two essentially good people and their children . Maggie O'Farrell is a master at creating stories that will keep you feeling and thinking throughout. Highly recommended!


I am grateful to Knopf and FirstToRead program for the opportunity to read this advance copy and especially to Maggie O'Farrell who has become one of my favorite authors .

[Elyse Walters · Rating 5 out of 5]

This story starts off with a BANG....literally a ‘bang’! It was such a strong beginning— twice my cell phone went off - personal calls coming in - I seriously debated about answering. One of those calls - I didn’t pick up.

But then something happened to MY ENJOYMENT- I didn’t understand what was happening. The story changed on me so quickly - new characters were introduced and I found myself resisting reading about them. I was still back with the first story.

So....I did something that worked beautiful for me:
FIRST....I made myself something to eat. I was hungry.
SECOND...I turned on the computer and read some reviews. ( both on Amazon and Goodreads...’only’ long enough to grasp an understanding about the structure of the writing - and see if I could pick up a few tips which might help my own reading.
And sure enough.... I found just what I needed. Once I had a better understanding and context of how to read this book, I felt more at ease. I felt more prepared. I felt I needed the crutch and support from other readers when I hit the wall of confusion.....
I no longer felt I was climbing a mountain in the dark.
I knew a ‘few’ things from readers of what I might expect - and it helped!

I made some tea....settled in, and was ‘really’ thankful to ALL THE OTHER READERS WHO CAME BEFORE ME.....
YOUR REVIEWS made a difference.! At times I still felt a little jolted with the transitions from a current story to a back story - from the 1980’s to the 1990’s.....but I got use to it.....[NOTE: this is my first book by Maggie O’Farrell].....but once I got into EACH story....with EACH of the different characters ....I was fully hooked .....
again, and again, - really caring about all these many people.

The heart of the story belongs to Daniel, a linguist, and Claudette, once a film star, who live in Donegal, Ireland. They are living a recluse lifestyle. They have a 6 year old daughter and baby boy.
Claudette, has an older son from years before, by one of her movie directors.
Daniel, American born, is about to fly to Brooklyn for his father’s 90th birthday party.
Daniel has two other children who live in California, a failed first marriage- and another woman in his past who plagues his thoughts.
We take a journey with Daniel......meeting a cast of characters who each live with challenges and troubles. Daniel has been carrying around a secret for years.

The title of this book is is terrific. For me ...it guided stimulating thoughts of HOME, BE HERE NOW, THE PAST, THE FUTURE, and.....THIS *MUST* BE THE PLACE.

There is soooooo much going on in this novel: haunting and hilarious- warm & real with flawed characters - sad - quirky- love-family - marriage- illness - secrets- forgiveness-gently pulling on our heartstrings throughout.


A ONE OF A KIND NOVEL! A saga of sorts ...but very unique crafting. I’ll definitely read more books by Maggie O’Farrell.

4.8 .....a couple of points off for feeling a little too jolted at times during transitions.

[Richard (on hiatus) · Rating 4 out of 5]

This Must Be The Place by Maggie O’Farrell is a type of book I always enjoy i.e. a saga that spans different time periods and geographical locations. A novel that touches on contemporary themes but is, at its heart, an intelligent examination of human relationships. A novel that is also frequently funny.
This book is not without faults but touched most bases for me.
The story contains a large cast of carefully drawn characters. Within this diverse group is an extended family and at the centre of that family is a marriage, from which all else radiates.
Daniel is a professor of linguistics who meets and falls for Claudette, a reclusive movie star.
We travel haphazardly, backwards and forwards in time as the story unfolds and we traverse the world with sections of the novel playing out in Ireland, England, USA, France, India, China, Bolivia .........
The story of Daniel and Claudette and their wider family is told through many voices. The voices are varied and always sound authentic.
I had read that the broken timeline and changes in point of view were confusing. I understand that criticism but I enjoyed the constant change. It was like a vast jigsaw puzzle that gradually revealed the full picture.
The writing is vivid and colourful, the narrative involving and I became attached to the main characters. Ultimately the novel became extremely poignant.
This Must Be The Place is big and ambitious and feels very different from other books by O’Farrell, there was almost a William Boyd feel (another favourite author) with the breadth of themes, characters and time slips.
I enjoyed this book a lot ......... highly recommended.

[El Librero de Valentina · Rating 5 out of 5]

Mi mejor descubrimiento de este año es Maggie O’Farrell.
Después de Hamnet, uno de mis favoritos del año, no sabía que esperar y aunque este libro en nada se le parece, es una belleza. Una construcción narrativa llena de vericuetos, un trama como rompecabezas en la que en cada capítulo encajas una pieza, personajes finamente construidos. Me encantó la historia que podría parecer simple y ella relata con cierta complejidad, entre saltos de tiempo y diferentes voces.

[Debbie · Rating 4 out of 5]

She's got me in the palm of her hand....

Even though I didn’t grab my pogo stick this time, it was close. This Maggie O’Farrell, oh she’s got me in the palm of her hand. This is the third book of hers that I’ve read in the last couple of months, and it won’t be my last. I was all happy squirmy as I got tangled up in this love story of a linguistics professor, Daniel, and his wife Claudette, a reclusive ex-movie star. As seems to be O’Farrell’s signature, this story jumps back and forth in time, starting with when they first met. Loads of characters, each getting a chapter of their own. Some writers may not be able to pull off the jumpy time frames with tons of people. O’Farrell can, end of story.

Well, not end of story because I have to do my gush, of course.

Joy Jar

-O’Farrell’s style plus my head equals bliss. The language slays me. I’ve said this with each of O’Farrell’s books and I’ll say it again: There is something about the way she writes that matches the chemicals in my brain and the blood in my veins. I read her sentences, I feel good. Plain and simple. I like the cadence of her language. It’s sophisticated. She does this thing with commas, where she gives you long sentences with cool lists, except they’re not all numbered and fact-ful and left-brained like your typical list. These sentences describe, of course, but they flow, they exude, they gently and swiftly pull together a bunch of thoughts that she has sneakily planted in my head. I’m getting too heady and weird. The only thing you need to remember is that her language does me in.

-Loads of characters with character. Complex, unique, robust, vivid—a little list of traits that tell you why I love the characters. I don’t know how in the world O’Farrell creates these guys. I feel like I know them, even the minor ones, and I feel what they are feeling. Daniel and Claudette are flawed for sure (especially Daniel), but I still was drawn to both of them. There are numerous kids and they all are fascinating—strong, loveable, smart, with challenges—and there isn’t an ounce of sap (often authors can’t help throwing in some syrup whenever there are kids). I noticed that she modeled one great kid character after her own daughter, who has a medical condition that she describes in her memoir, I Am, I Am, I Am: Seventeen Brushes with Death. This connection made the character even richer. O’Farrell squints, looks inside people’s heads, and spews out all of her psychological insight. The way O’Farrell weaves everyone’s lives together is nothing short of brilliant.

-I can see those 12 gates perfectly. O’Farrell is so good at creating a sense of place. I especially liked the description of Daniel’s and Claudette’s property. And there’s a scene at the beginning of the book where Claudette has to get out of the car to open and close 12 gates as she and Daniel are leaving their house. It was very creative and spectacularly written.

-Other gushables. (Attention: Just because the following list is all staccato, it doesn’t mean they are minor gushables):

-Great imagery.
-Philosophical.
-Complex storyline.
-Just the right amount of words to look up.
-Mighty fine ending, without fireworks.

Complaint Board (with tiny letters and read in a small voice, without much vigor)

Besides the gush, there is a little fuss, I hate to say. I didn’t press down hard as I was writing on my Complaint Board, just so I could make it less intense. Read it as if it’s in a small font, and whisper, please. The truth is, even if she tried, O’Farrell couldn’t annoy me much.

-Maybe grab the pruning shears and give it a little trim? I’m a 350-pages kind of gal. This was about 500. Sometimes I did find myself looking at the Percent Read number at the bottom of my Kindle page. But the story was so rich, I’d quickly get re-absorbed. I don’t usually like so much description, but I really did like the detailed scenes she created. See? O’Farrell can get away with anything! I always complain about too much description, and here I am saying I liked it. WTF?

-Character overload? I’m laughing because for every one of these complaints, I have a BUT. That’s my O’Farrell defender kicking into gear. Okay, so occasionally I did think maybe there were too many characters. But then as O’Farrell made every single character so vivid and interesting, I forgave her and decided it was a fine number of characters. But it would have been nice to have had a map showing character names and relationships.

-Haven’t I met you before? Thank god I was reading this book on a Kindle! I pressed that Search button, baby, and off I went, finding out who was who. Modern technology is nothing to sneeze at; this feature saved my ass. If I had been reading the physical book—where the story would have been flip pages, flip pages, back and forth, back and forth, damn, I know I’ve heard this name before—I would have been pissed off big time. Probably wouldn’t have found the names, either. Seriously, what did we do before e-readers?

-I want to feel the edge. It’s funny that the other two O’Farrell books I read had a lot of suspense, because neither one was a thriller. Still, with both of them I was on the edge of my seat most of the time. This book didn’t have suspense, and I missed sitting on the edge.

-Where did the binocular man go? The book starts out with a strange binocular guy in the woods outside the house, and a woman in the doorway with a gun in her hand. Now, that got my attention! I’m not going to lie, I was ready for some suspense. BUT—and this really annoyed me—we never find out who the guy was! The regular (non-suspenseful) story grabbed me quick-like and I promptly forgot about the guy with binoculars, so it was only after I finished the book that I realized that O’Farrell had never developed that story—it had been dropped like a hot potato. Actually, I was surprised that O’Farrell would shamelessly use this trick: Going all high gear and grabbing your attention right off the bat, and then changing to low gear and never finishing that story. That’s an old creative-writing-class trick for sure—start your story with a bang just to draw us suckers in. It’s the old bait-and-switch, although the scene does tell us something about Claudette.

There. That’s the end of Complaint Board entries…

Multi-media adventure, or why I love Google…
Almost at the very end of the book, where I am momentarily annoyed that a new character has appeared, we’re in the salt flats of Bolivia. (I wasn’t expecting to go there, I’ll tell you that.) The descriptions were amazing—bright white sands and bright blue skies, one on top of each other as you look at the horizon. (Well, O’Farrell says it a lot better.) I had never heard of salt flats, or salt flats in Bolivia (who has?). So story interruptus, I quickly dropped the Kindle and picked up my iPad, and sigh, I did what I was born to do, I Googled. Wow, gorgeous pictures, hundreds of them. This whole hidden world of salt flats in Bolivia, who knew? I was in heaven. (And feeling a little sorry for myself that I can’t travel there and see them in person. Wait! Cut it out! I don’t get along with heat, AT ALL, so I shouldn’t be SAD, I should be GLAD that I’m not there and instead can see the salt flats from the comfort of my AC’d house.) But you know what? Even though I loved the pictures of the salt flats (for some reason I like to say “salt flats”!?!), O’Farrell’s descriptions were so gorgeous that I think I almost preferred the words to the pics. And that, folks, is amazing writing. She has the IT factor.

Now away from the salt flats so I can say this final thing: If you haven’t read any O’Farrell, fix that. I highly recommend I Am, I Am, I Am: Seventeen Brushes with Death (a memoir) and The Vanishing Act of Esme Lennox. Both made my all-time favorites list. O’Farrell is so damn perceptive and wise, such an astute observer of life. I’m a fan for life.

[Esil · Rating 4 out of 5]

Maggie O’Farrell is seriously talented. I recently read I Am, I Am, I Am: Seventeen Brushes with Death and The Vanishing Act of Esme Lennox, and now I’ve just finished This Must Be the Place. Her two other books got 5 stars from me, and this one gets a high 4 stars.

The novel focuses on Daniel and Claudette, who are married and have two children together and each have children from prior relationships. Claudette is a former film star escaping her previous life and Daniel is troubled by a few ghosts of his own. When they meet, Claudette is a recluse living in a remote area of Ireland. The story is told though multiple characters who have come into contact with Claudette or Daniel at some point in time. Theirs is a relationship made complicated by their various demons but held together by the strong bond with their children.

The storytelling is original and the writing is beautiful. I really loved the multiple points of view and the slipperiness of time — the story felt much like a puzzle that slowly came together through its multiple small parts. The only reason it didn’t quite make it into my rarified 5 star basket is that I wasn’t enchanted by Claudette or Daniel. They were both a bit too melodramatic for my tastes. Having said that, I loved most of the secondary characters through whom Claudette and Daniel’s story is told — I particularly liked their unusual and lovely children. O’Farrell puts so much substance into her characters — not relying on stock characters or stereotypes

I will definitely read more books by Maggie O’Farrell. Thank you to my GR friends who have shown such enthusiasm for this author.

[Cheri · Rating 4 out of 5]

”To all appearances, I am a husband, a father, a teacher, a citizen, but when tilted toward the light I become a deserter, a sham, a killer, a thief. On the surface I am one thing, but underneath I am riddled with holes and caverns, like a limestone landscape.”

Told through multiple intertwined chains of stories that weave through the years 1944 to 2016, this takes you on a virtual tour of various locales on the planet. From Goa, India to Brooklyn, to a remote locale in Donegal, Ireland – which is where Daniel Sullivan meets Claudette Wells. Daniel has come to Ireland to collect the ashes of his grandfather, and Claudette has been living there in seclusion, attempting to hide from the world following her self-imposed disappearance from the glitz, glamour and paparazzi that accompany film stars. Discovered when she was in her early 20s by a famous director, she hasn’t been seen by anyone in years, and she wants it to stay that way. So when Daniel comes to her rescue, oblivious to her fame, a relationship develops.

What follows is somewhat chaotic, but only in the sense that life can be chaotic when measured by the day-to-day frenzies that threaten every time the television is turned on, or one drives on a road traveled by others to a job with more frustrations than can be counted. It’s just life in all its messiness, glory and frustrations.

”What redemption there is in being loved: we are always our best selves when loved by another. Nothing can replace this.”

The characters, and there are many, are so completely formed, so complete with all their quirks and different viewpoints that it was easier for me to follow whose story I was reading – almost always, but it did force me out of the story and into the role of story-reader a few times.

I loved that so much of this story was set in this reclusive spot in Donegal, and especially that it begins there. I love the way that O’Farrell sprinkled little clues along the way as she goes, a word here or there that gives you insight into a character, or a reaction that says something that comes to you later on as you’re reading. Claudette and Daniel are so frustratingly human, prone to saying or doing the wrong thing, and not grasping how to undo the damage. O’Farrell seems to have this down to an art, her ability to make these people so perfectly imperfect that we pull them close to us, and want to spend our time with them.

This is the third of Maggie O’Farrell’s novels I’ve read in the last month, and while I didn’t love this quite as much as the other two. I loved the characters and the story, in general, it just didn’t measure up – for me – to the other two I read. It may have dragged a bit in some small parts, but overall, my love for O’Farrell’s writing and storytelling is still strong as ever.

[Sara · Rating 5 out of 5]

I am on a Maggie O’Farrell binge and loving it. I am captivated by her writing style, the way she can weave scattered threads into a tapestry, seem to lose the pattern and then bring it back into clear focus again. She bewitches me, and while I am reading her I want to do nothing else but follow the threads and decipher the design. I have not felt this entranced with a writer since I stumbled upon Anita Shreve in the early 90’s and waited impatiently between books for her next volume to be released.

This Must Be the Place is at its heart a love story, one about the magic of finding that person that you are meant to be with, the one who understands you, who gets you. And yet, it is the story of how fragile that connection can be, how easily damaged, how difficult to hold on to. It is about marriage, lives built and torn down, roads taken and regretted, and the way the past haunts the present and changes the future.

Maggie O’Farrell has a penchant for creating characters that feel right and real. From a distance, they can often be viewed as someone you would never expect to meet in a million years, and yet in the context of the book they are very like you, like people you know, like people you have met--in short, they breathe. As unique as Claudette and Daniel, our two main characters are, I understood them and empathized with them. Daniel was such a believable mixture of wisdom and folly, he often seemed to be stumbling through his life, but his imperfections were in many ways the things that made me love him, root for him. For do we not all fumble our way through much of our existence, miraculously winning when we ought to lose, and sometimes losing when we cannot understand how we failed to win?

I’m delighted to know I have several O’Farrell’s still to read. I know I am late to the party, but I’m betting I’m having just as much fun as those who were the first to sit at the table. Hopefully, she will keep producing books for a long, long time and I will soon be one of those waiting impatiently for the next O’Farrell to hit the shelves.

[Karen · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is above all a love story. Very heartwarming, and suspenseful and a story of family, secrets, and forgiveness... I just loved Daniel Sullivan even with all of his flaws, he still had a huge heart and sense of humor.

[Beverly · Rating 4 out of 5]

Daniel and Claudette's love story is not an easy journey. He is charming, articulate, joyful and mercurial; she is enchanting, disarming, strong and steadfast, but one thing she is not is disloyal and she will not put up with a man who is. I found their story lovely and sad and heartbreaking.

Powerful emphasis on children and how their lives are effected by loving parents or their opposite is a major part of the author's theme as well. This is not just one love story, it is many, the love of a father for his children is particularly sweet and brought tears to my eyes. The road not taken is also a puzzle that Maggie O'Farrell wants to solve. Is there one great love for us all and what if you bungle your chance?

[Cathrine ☯️ · Rating 5 out of 5]

5★★★★★
I'm in my favorite reading place with a Maggie O'Farrell.
It's hard to move on to another book after I finish.
I need some recovery time.
I need to choose another very good read to follow it or I'm going to be very stingy with my stars.

[Anne Bogel · Rating 5 out of 5]

A Modern Mrs Darcy Book Club February 2018 selection

This is one of my lifetime favorites. Family stories are commonplace in fiction, but I love this one for its intricate plotting, nuanced characters, true-to-life feel, and ultimate hopefulness. It's the story of an unlikely but successful marriage between a floundering American professor and a British film star who hated the limelight so much she faked her own death and disappeared ... until an unexpected bit of news, twenty years old but newly discovered, threatens to unravel everything they've built together.

If you want to hear me talk more about this story, told in interlocking scenes from different viewpoints, occurring between 1944 and 2016, it's the subject of One Great Book Volume 1 Episode 8.

[Liz]

An odd sort of book. It’s more like a collection of stories than your typical novel. Each chapter is told by a different character and from a different time period. The stories all tend to revolve around Daniel Sullivan, a linguistics professor living in Ireland with his second wife, an ex-actress in hiding. The stories coalesce to fill in Daniel’s story. The chapter titles keep you on track as to time and place, so you aren't confused.

Daniel is not a sympathetic character. He’s a womanizer, also an egotist, unaware of anyone else's feelings but his own. His first wife leaves him and denies him access to his children. As you learn more about his backstory, you can understand the anger that probably led her to do that. His second wife, Claudette, is a real character, as in a bit bonkers. But you can feel sympathy for her. But I give credit to O’Farrell. Her characters are complex, three dimensional folks that you can easily picture.

I did get a kick over how many words I had to look up, given that the main character in the book is a linguist.

The writing is very good, the stories are interesting. But I can't say this book really grab me until far along. I can't decide if my initial dislike for Daniel was the reason it took me a while to connect with the book. In the final analysis, I’d rate this 3.5 stars, rounding up to 4.

[Dolors · Rating 2 out of 5]

It is difficult to believe the same author that spoke to my soul in Hamnet wrote this novel.
I came to it inebriated with music, having just turned the last page of the symphonic Grace Notes, and trying as hard as I could, the words on the page didn’t stir a single emotion in my astounded self. There was no rhythm in the narration, no pulse in the characters, no mystery in the pattern of the story that sounded abruptly cut in every unnatural chapter, mixing more narrators than necessary, superfluously running forwards and backwards in time and delving in details that added no futher depth into the plotline.

The story sounded appealing enough. A marriage that is about to end. A traumatic past. A ghost of another person who haunts one of the main characters. And O’Farrell as the director of the orchestra. I jumped in without thinking twice.

Oh, the disappointment. I realized the book wasn’t for me 50 pages in, but I persisted, expecting to hear the hidden music of O’Farrell’s talented writing. Instead, I read 500 pages of deaf tune, crossed a desert of dry words and reached the other side totally drained. That’s why I am heading for the ocean next, see if manage to hear the sirens call this time around.

[Zoeytron · Rating 4 out of 5]

Nuanced choices and working at cross-purposes.  The redemption of being loved - this is when a person is at his or her best.  The particular melancholy of reaching the end of a story . . . in life, with death, even with the closing of the cover of a book.  I wasn't ready to let these characters go.  Brava!

[Helene Jeppesen · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was a wonderful book about life and the struggles we all have to face. What I particularly liked about it is that it jumps in perspective, time and place. At one point, we're at a crossroads in rural Ireland, at another point, we find ourselves in America 20 years ago.
"This Must Be the Place" makes for a puzzling, however very much intriguing tale about a movie star who once disappeared, about marriage, and about identity, guilt, and doubt. I loved it a lot and I'm thrilled I decided to give it a go.

[Laysee · Rating 4 out of 5]

This Must Be The Place is my third book by Maggie O’Farrell and the first that I found somewhat wearisome.

It is a rather long story, albeit compelling, that is not told chronologically and spans a time period from 1944 to 2016. The chapters are written from the perspective of a large cast of characters at various time points in the past or present. The story also takes place in different places: Donegal (Ireland), Belfast, London, Sussex, Cumbria, Suffolk, Scotland, Brooklyn, St. Francisco, California, New York, Goa (India), Chengdu (China), and Bolivia. If I were less stressed at work or bone tired, I might have responded better. However, zigzagging through time and space to track the main protagonists, children and relatives on both sides of their family, friends, and acquaintances left me dizzy and grouchy. I felt I was put to work to stitch the story together. It did not help that I was not enamored of the couple (Daniel and Claudette) whose marriage teeters precariously on the brink of dissolution.

To her credit, O’Farrell makes us curious about her characters whose individual personalities are superbly drawn. Claudette Wells is a famous and Oscar-winning actress who disappeared from the movie world at the height of her career to retreat with her son (Ari) to a large mansion in a remote valley in Donegal, Ireland. Entry to and exit from this secret hideout of a house necessitates the unlocking of twelve gates. In some ways, figuring out what happened is akin to painstakingly unlocking the secret lives of the characters. Even after I finished this story, I can only guess at what led to Claudette’s failed relationship with Timou Lindstrom, the almost-husband and film director who propelled her to stardom. What is consistent is Claudette’s volatile character, her rather harsh and unforgiving nature, intelligence, dedication to her children, and decisiveness.

The other protagonist is Daniel Sullivan, an American linguist, who stumbled upon Claudette on a trip to Ireland on a mission to locate his grandfather’s ashes. At the time he met Claudette in Donegal, he was nursing grief and anger at not being allowed by his ex-wife to see his two children (Niall and Phoebe). Daniel and Claudette marry and have two children (Marithe and Calvin). How complicated can life be when two people dearly love each other, live in private seclusion, and have adorable children they both love and care about?

That all is not well started to emerge when Daniel had to make a trip back to New York to celebrate his elderly father’s birthday. Daniel’s past as a graduate student, his cavalier attitude toward his girlfriends (especially his first, Nicola Janks), his addiction to alcohol and drugs come back to unravel his life in the present. I wanted to know what happened to Nicola in 1986 in a forest in Scotland after a wedding at which Daniel was trying to mend a broken relationship with her. Daniel wondered too and lived with an uneasiness that could not be put aside until he knew the truth.

A question this story raised is how much of our past (history) we should reveal to our spouse and at what cost. The story takes a hard look at the fragility of marriage and how easily love can fray at the seams and fall apart. A total stranger (Rosalind, a new character introduced at 90% of the book, which initially had me quite riled) offered Daniel some food for thought: ”Marriages end not because of something you did say but because of something you didn’t. All you have to do now is to work out what it is.” Can a marriage be salvaged when trust is betrayed? How will it happen, if at all?

The Daniel-Claudette story aside, O’Farrell let us get to know Ari, Niall, Phoebe, Marithe and Calvin quite intimately. This brood of children are real persons with their own struggles and I feel like I have met and known them. They are a lot more likeable than Daniel or Claudette.

I cannot give this book less than four stars as O’Farrell is indisputably a very competent raconteur. The plot, the dialogue, and characterization are expertly handled. Maggie O'Farrell fans will likely love it. I suspect I would too if I had read this at some beautiful vacation spot in a more relaxed frame of mind.

[Jood · Rating 2 out of 5]

Native New Yorker Daniel, married to eccentric, reclusive ex-film star Claudette, lives in the wilds of Ireland with their two young children. Daniel, however, has an ex-wife and two kids living in California, kids he hasn't seen since he walked out on them years ago. He decides to return to New York, his first visit for several years, to attend his father's 90th birthday party. He's doing this with a certain amount of reluctance, but whilst there, why not just nip across to California and meet these estranged kids. So far, so good.

This book gets off to a really good start with Daniel narrating with dark, wry humour. Great, thought I, settling down for an enjoyable few hours. Unfortunately that warm fuzzy feeling I get when immersed in a Really Good Book didn't last. Now I don't mind stories that hop between past and present, and I don't mind stories in which each character takes a chapter and tells it like it is from his/her point of view, but this – this is so disjointed it's like climbing uphill through an avalanche. It's not just back and forth between two timelines, it's all over the place with no apparent rhythm or pattern. So many characters, so many seemingly unconnected tales of woe, I couldn't get a firm grip on anything. The style in that wonderful opening chapter disappeared and it felt as if the rest of the book had been written by a different author. To say the author has lost the plot just about sums it up.

If you're new to Maggie O'Farrell I suggest you try some of her earlier books – leave this one and possibly Instructions For a Heatwave off your to-read list.


My thanks to Amazon for a complimentary copy to read and review

[Antoinette · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love Maggie O’Farrell. What is so unique about her is that with each new book, she reinvents herself. They are all so different in tone and subject matter. What remains the same is her mastery of language and her exquisite writing.

I absolutely loved this book! When I first began reading it, I wasn’t totally sure how to react to the changing viewpoints and the changing time frames. Then it all came together for me and I realized how brilliantly she was creating this couple, Daniel and Claudette, and all the connections that led to them.

This book is about love, loss, heartbreak, joy and finding your place in it all. I became so invested in Daniel and Claudette and their children and even a woman who shows up for just one chapter. Flawed people like everyone one of us. I finished the book and immediately felt bereft at leaving them behind.

Two quotes that really spoke to me:

“She is tired, down to her bones, soaked right through, like a rag, with exhaustion but she is simultaneously filled with an effervescent glee, an irrepressible thrill.”

“ I have a theory that marriages end not because of something you did say but because of something you didn’t. “

This is my 6th book by Maggie O’Farrell. I am grateful to know, I still have 3 I haven’t read.

Highly recommend this book, but be patient till you get into the flow. It won’t take long, I promise.

Published: 2016

[Rebecca · Rating 4 out of 5]

Maggie O��Farrell’s globe-trotting seventh novel opens in 2010 with Daniel Sullivan, an American linguistics professor in Donegal. Spreading outward from Ireland and reaching into every character’s past and future, this has all O’Farrell’s trademark insight into family and romantic relationships, as well as her gorgeous prose and precise imagery. The disparate locations and the title suggest our nomadic modern condition. It’s the widest scope she has attempted yet; that’s both a good and a bad thing. I did wonder if there were a few too many characters and plot threads.

I have always felt that O’Farrell expertly straddles the (perhaps imaginary) line between literary and popular fiction; her books are addictively readable but also hold up to critical scrutiny.

See my full review at The Bookbag.


Related reading: The Hand That First Held Mine is, to my mind, O’Farrell’s masterpiece. I also loved Instructions for a Heatwave.

Readers of nuanced family stories will also enjoy The Green Road by Anne Enright and The Past by Tessa Hadley.

[Susan · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is one of the most thoughtful, literate books I've read in a long time. The story of a man, Daniel Sullivan, reveals both the good and the bad sides of him, the joys and sorrows and what motivates him. The story is divided into chapters narrated by many different people who have impacted his life in so many ways. The book also skips throughout time from 1944 to 2016 but is quite easy to follow. What emerges is a well developed story of a man.

When Daniel meets Claudette he has one major failed relationship and a failed marriage behind him. He is the father of two children who he rarely sees because of his ex-wife's actions. Claudette is a famous actress who has fled the limelight and is in hiding in rural Donegal, Ireland. She has a son with a stuttering problem. The two fall in love and have two children together. It sounds like a chick lit book but it's not. It's so much more.

Daniel is a linguist and loves words. He loves how they're used and why people select and use the words they do. He teaches in colleges and lectures as a guest speaker. The love of words is apparent throughout the book. The language is resonate and nuanced. It was just pure pleasure.

I first heard of this author when I was on a trip to Bigger, Scotland where she was doing a reading. Always a fine author, she has grown and developed as an author and this is, by far, her best yet. This is a book for people who love a good story told in a delightful, different way. It's a standout.

[Anne · Rating 5 out of 5]

Maggie O'Farrell is such a good writer, she can get away with anything. I wrote a note when I was only 20% in to this novel that I loved the way O'Farrell was able to pull off going on tangents from the main narrative and circling back around again. Well, what I didn't know then was that the whole book would be not just occasional tangents but more like time travel with each chapter landing me in another year, decade and place. Not only that, but the narrator also changed with each chapter. I don't think I've read any other novel which hopscotched around the way this one did. I did have to get my bearings at the beginning of each chapter. Where are we? What year? What decade? What city or continent? Who's been born already? Who's narrating? He sounds familiar....Oh, right...now I remember. Sometimes it was hard to remember a name or a person because O'Farrell populates this novel with so many people and we usually don't meet them in every chapter and when we do meet them again they can be younger or older, taking on more or less significance in the story. I have to admit that this is usually not my favorite type of reading experience, but O'Farrell, being such a dexterous writer, kept me engaged and made it all work. She makes each chapter work individually and, at the end, she brings all the disparate pieces together into a cohesive, satisfying whole. Put simply, O'Farrell is a magician.

[Julie · Rating 5 out of 5]

On a quest to locate his grandfather's remains, Daniel Sullivan, an American professor of Linguistics, finds himself on a lonely road in northwest Ireland. There he encounters a young boy with a stutter, and a secret. The boy's mother, Claudette Wells, was one of the world's most famous movie stars. Then one day, on a yacht tour of a Swedish archipelago, she and her infant son — who is now the pre-teen Daniel meets in the Irish wilds — disappear.

It's fitting that this novel opens at an intersection, a literal and figurative crossroads. It's where the characters find themselves time and again — at the tipping points of relationships when love enters or ebbs, at those critical moments in a decision when it's too late to turn back. This Must Be the Place is a novel of departures and arrivals, of losses and finds, a literary finger that traces the roadmaps of lives. It's precariously structured, told from multiple points of view, and in its fragility lies wonder and intimacy, struggle, inevitable disappointment, and abiding love.

Claudette orchestrated her own vanishing, leaving behind the pressures and pretense of celebrity for the anonymity of a ramshackle home in a remote corner of Co. Donegal. Only her brother and sister-in-law know she and her son are still alive. But she falls in love with Daniel and must make room for his past, which includes two children from a previous marriage, and a host of hidden regrets.

Daniel has his own history of running away. There's the college girlfriend grieving after an abortion who he left behind in England to return for his father's funeral in New York, and the two kids in California he loses after his divorce. And now, years after marrying Claudette and fathering two more kids, he's off-course again.

Few novelists write family and marriage with the same deft, unsentimental and yet intimate hand as Maggie O'Farrell. Her ability to capture the comfort and claustrophobia of marriage, the regret and mourning of past love, the burden and delight of children is breathtaking. These characters manage the indignities and traumas of severe eczema, stuttering, infertility, anorexia and agoraphobia, but they are defined by their wholeness of being, not by their conditions. And, oh, her writing is just so goddamn good.

This is a beautiful, deeply resonant and satisfying novel. Highly recommended.

[Lori Keeton · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.5 stars

Maggie O’Farrell is undoubtedly gifted at her craft. I have been so anxious to get to another of her novels and I am not disappointed. This was my third and I am reassured that she will be a go-to author when I am craving an in-depth voyage journeying along with a family just trying to figure out life, love, and the decisions we make that affect that path. Nothing in life and love is guaranteed to last forever. We are our own worst enemy at times and can derail what we thought was perfect and lasting. We can be selfish and cause real love to disintegrate because of our decisions. Priorities can get muddled and our families suffer for the things we think we need at the time. Daniel knew he shouldn’t bring up a past relationship and explore the mystery of what happened to Nicola, but he did it anyway, and there were consequences. Claudette created a tricky lifestyle in seclusion for their family.

How to communicate to Claudette the towering fear he has at letting even a molecule of what happened twenty-odd years ago leak into the life they have carved out for themselves? Because this is how he sees it, as a gaseous poison, bottled, stoppered, sealed, never to be opened.

We must pursue what’s in front of us, not what we can’t have or what we have lost. We must grasp what we can reach and hold on, fast.

Repercussions abound for Daniel and his true love, Claudette. And we are witness to these flawed individuals as life goes on and the pieces are attempted to be put back together. The question is whether this marriage is salvageable or is it in danger of calamity.

I couldn’t let the possibility that I was at fault, that I had done something so wrong, intrude into the life I had found, the life I had chosen that day at the crossroads.

I couldn’t give this one 5 stars for a very selfish reason: this one jumps back and forth in time and is told from many, many different points of view. It’s something I usually have trouble with and just can’t get the narrative to flow when it’s written this way. It got a bit tiresome to flit back and forth and to find a new narrator to tell Daniel and Claudette’s story. Honestly, I have nothing to criticize in the writing. O’Farrell’s prose is exquisite as you can see from the quotes I’ve provided. So thought-provoking and so beautifully expressed from beginning to end. I reveled in her ability to allow me to feel with these characters psychologically and emotionally. Her attention to detail cannot be matched.

What redemption there is in being loved: we are always our best selves when loved by another. Nothing can replace this.

I think about this, how she is my unavoidable constant.

[Betsy Robinson · Rating 4 out of 5]

Maggie O’Farrell is addictive and with this, the second book I’ve read after her remarkable I Am, I AM, I Am, I’m happily so addicted that it is my intention to read every book she’s written and every future book she writes.

The writing is delectable, the craft impeccable, and what in other hands would be a women’s fiction relationship soap opera becomes in, O’Farrell’s elegant artistic fingers, a pitch-perfect human epic about love and loss and mistakes and trying.

[Barbara · Rating 5 out of 5]

This Must Be the Place is so much more than a love story between two adults. Parental love, love of place, chance encounters, the corrosiveness of guilt, deceit. forgiveness and disappointment are elements found in varying degrees in the myriad characters. How all these players fit together in such a satisfying way is due only to the skillful writing of O'Farrell. Her command of the language, insightfulness, and wit left me awed and delighted. I was in the hands of a master!

Great writing is, for me, the most important element in a book. All books that are written well begin with 3 stars in my internal rating. That rating can never go down to a 2. It will go up to 4 stars if the characters are developed well and up to a 5 if the story is compelling. This book was fantastic in all three areas. I am now a committed O'Farrell fan.

[Marianne · Rating 5 out of 5]

“She wasn’t going to look at him again, no, she wasn’t….. Then she did look and the same sensations hit again, like a row of dominoes toppling into each other: the towering sense of recognition, the disbelief that she doesn’t somehow know him, the ridiculousness that they do not know each other, the impossibility of them not seeing each other again”

This Must Be The Place is the seventh novel by British author, Maggie O’Farrell. Claudette Wells is Daniel Sullivan’s second wife. Even after several years of living together in a remote corner of Donegal, and fathering two children with her, he still finds it hard to believe that this eccentric, occasionally crazy, reclusive and beautiful ex-film star ever agreed to marry him. Later, he will remember this, and wonder what possessed him to put all that at risk. But now, a chance snippet of a radio broadcast, heard on the way to the train, sets him on a path to his past.

Daniel heads off to New York, to his (not at all beloved) father’s 90th birthday party, makes an unplanned detour to California see the son and daughter from whom he has been kept for nine years by a vindictive ex-wife, then detours again to Sussex. What he learns there has such a profound effect on him, it threatens to derail the best thing in his life.

O’Farrell has done it again! This extended family, this cast of characters, they pull the reader in. She draws each of them so well, with all their flaws and foibles, that the reader cannot help but find them appealing, hoping that things will turn out okay for them, laughing with them when they do and shedding a tear or two when they don’t.

The story is told by many different characters: the perspective of some is given numerous times; others share their perceptions only once; conveniently, each chapter is clearly marked with the character and the time period; as well as contributing to the main story, these alternate views give vignettes of other, associated lives; most are conventional first-person or third-person narratives, but there is a second-person one, one with footnotes, a transcript of an interview, and even an auction catalogue with images; the chapter headings are phrases lifted from the text therein, producing a tiny resonance when they are read in context.

O’Farrell’s descriptive prose is wonderfully evocative: “An amount of time later – he isn’t sure exactly how much – Daniel is walking in through the gates of the cemetery. He comes here at least once a day. It gives him an aim, a kind of routine. He makes his way along the gravelled path, letting his eye rest on the hundreds and hundreds of gravestones, watching the way they pull themselves into diagonal columns as he passes, then unpeel themselves, then line up again. An endless process of arrangement and disarrangement” is one example.

“He thinks of his grief over his sister as an entity that is horribly and painfully attached to him, the way a jellyfish might adhere to your skin or a goitre or an abscess. He pictures it as viscid, amorphous, spiked, hideous to behold. He finds it unbelievable that no one else can see it. Don’t mind that, he would say, it’s just my grief. Please ignore it and carry on with what you were saying” is another example.

Fans of O’Farrell’s earlier novels will not be disappointed. Readers new to her work are sure to seek out her backlist. Yet another O’Farrell novel that is an unadulterated pleasure to read.

[Peter Boyle · Rating 3 out of 5]

A chance encounter. Orbits collide and you run into the most alluring stranger. A certain dizziness takes hold, a breathlessness. There is an instant connection - from their easy smile and twinkling eyes, they seem happy to be in your company too. You suddenly need to know everything about this person you've never met before, you want to tell them things you've never told anybody else. Your heart is pounding - are you brave enough to take things further? Or will you slouch away and spend the rest of your life wondering about what might have been?

This Must Be The Place is built upon two such meetings. The first happens in a remote corner of Donegal, Ireland. Claudette Wells, a reclusive Oscar-winning actress, stands on a country road with her young son Ari, their car immobilised by a flat tyre. Daniel Sullivan, a linguist from Brooklyn, is in the area to scatter his grandfather's ashes. He stumbles upon this scene and comes to their aid. There is an immediate attraction - Daniel is completely smitten, Claudette is intrigued by this charming man who is so at ease with her son. Years later they are married with two more children. But Daniel has dark secrets in his past that eventually surface and threaten the existence of their unlikely relationship.

The second fateful encounter is described halfway through the book. It's New York, 1944 - long before Daniel has been born. His mother Teresa, a librarian, is already engaged to his father but on the subway one evening she bumps into Johnny Demarco, a handsome Italian-American gentleman. Their chemistry is undeniable, they both feel it. A few days later, he comes to the building where she works to tell her that he searched every library in Brooklyn to find her. Before he can go on she lets him know that she has promised herself to another. Years pass and they meet again on a ferry - Teresa has a young Daniel with her. Johnny tells her that he thinks about her every day, that he wished he'd grabbed her that afternoon at the library and never let her go. Teresa nods. "We made our choices and we have to live with them," she says. She will play that first subway meeting over in her head almost every day of her life and think about Johnny even on her deathbed.

This is an ambitious novel - 28 sprawling chapters told by multiple narrators from locations as far-flung as India and Bolivia. Some of these characters I loved. The plight of Daniel's son Niall broke my heart on more than one occasion. Born with a chronic skin disease, he is a caring and thoughtful person who endures more than his fair share of suffering (I've since learned that Maggie O'Farrell's own daughter is affected by a similar ailment, which she wrote poignantly about here). Rosalind is another memorable and likable individual - she imparts some valuable marriage advice to Daniel when he needs it most. Other characters I felt did not deserve their own chapter. Others still I believe we did not learn enough about (Daniel's daughter Phoebe for example).

Ultimately the large cast is spread a little thin and the novel is just too long-winded for its own good. By losing some of the secondary characters it would have focused the story better. This Must Be The Place works best when it examines the intricacies of marriage - the care and attention it needs, the sacrifices that must be made, the immeasurable happiness it can bring. But above all, it seems to say, you need the courage to make that chance of true love happen, or else spend the rest of your days thinking about the one that got away.