The First Time Lauren Pailing Died

By: Alyson Rudd

Narrated by: Chloe Massey

‘STYLISH, ALLURING, UTTERLY GRIPPING’ Lisa O’Kelly, Observer
‘WONDERFULLY INVENTIVE (COMPARISONS WITH KATE ATKINSON ARE INEVITABLE… I COULDN’T PUT IT DOWN’The Times
‘LIKE NOTHING YOU HAVE EVER READ BEFORE’ Red

Lauren Pailing is born in the sixties, and a child of the seventies. She is thirteen years old the first time she dies.

Lauren Pailing is a teenager in the eighties, becomes a Londoner in the nineties. And each time she dies, new lives begin for the people who loved her – while Lauren enters a brand new life, too.

But in each of Lauren’s lives, a man called Peter Stanning disappears. And, in each of her lives, Lauren sets out to find him.

And so it is that every ending is also a beginning. And so it is that, with each new beginning, Peter Stanning inches closer to finally being found…

Perfect for fans of Kate Atkinson and Maggie O’Farrell, The First Time Lauren Pailing Died is a book about loss, grief – and how, despite it not always feeling that way, every ending marks the start of something new.

©2019 Alyson Rudd (P)2019 HarperCollins Publishers Limited

First Rate

This is an excellent novel. I'd expected just a good read, and an interesting development of the sliding doors theme. Ms Rudd gives us way more than that. She uses the concept to develop the characters well and present quite a moving story of loss and recovery. The narrative switches among three parallel plots involving mostly the same characters living different lives. You have to pay enough attention to spot which world you're in as each new segment begins, but that's easy. This book is very well structured, without seeming at all labored or contrived, and very well written. The synopsis on Audible is a bit misleading -- yes, one constant among all three settings is the unexplained disappearance of a peripheral character, but the protagonist doesn't pursue him. and the novel isn't about that. This novel is fully imagined, and very satisfying. I can't wait to read whatever Ms Rudd gives us next.