O'Farrell started writing the story which was to become '' After You 'd Gone Home '' at an Arvon Foundation course in Yorkshire , it was praised by her tutors , Barbara Trapido and Elspeth Barker . The novel centres on Alice who is in a coma following a suicide attempt . Using shifting times and viewpoints it tells of the lives and loves of three generations of women : Alice and her two sisters , her complex and secretive mother Ann , and her grandmother Elspeth in who 's North Berwick home they all lived . Central to the story is the passionate relationship of Alice with her Jewish husband John , who works in Canary Wharf and is caught up in the 1996 Docklands bombing
1996 Docklands bombing
1996 Docklands bombing
After You'd Gone