The Book of Lost and Found

by Lucy Foley

Sweeping and heartrending – the perfect summer read for fans of Victoria Hislop and Kate Morton.

In many ways my life has been rather like a record of the lost and found. Perhaps all lives are like that . . .

LONDON, 1986: Bequeathed an old portrait by her grandmother, Kate Darling begins to unpick the tapestry of her family’s secret history in a journey that takes her to Corsica, Paris and back to the heady days of the Roaring Twenties where it all began.

PARIS, 1939: Alice Eversley and Thomas Stafford meet once again in the City of Light. Tom is now a world-famous artist, Alice is much-changed too – bruised from the events of the last decade. Perhaps they can lose themselves in the love story that ignited by a moonlit lake all those years ago?

But sometimes there’s no place for happy endings – and there’s no hiding from the shadow of war . . .

• ISBN13: 9780007575343
• Publish Date: 15 January 2015
• Publish Status: Active
• Publish Country: GB
• Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers Inc
• Imprint: HarperCollins
• Format: eBook (EPUB)
• Pages: 468
• Language: English
• URL: http://harpercollins.co.uk

Reviews

[Lianne]

I won an ARC of this book via the GoodReads First Reads programme. This review in its entirety was originally posted at eclectictales.com: http://www.eclectictales.com/blog/2015/08/19/review-the-book-of-lost-and-found

The first few chapters definitely left me intrigued as to what happened to these characters, especially Alice and Tom from the 1930s and how their story intersects with Kate in 1986. The story in general is interesting enough that it kept me turning the page: aside from what happened to Alice and Tom, together and separately, I was also interested in the turn of events in Thomas’ life and how he followed his dreams, as well as Alice’s own personal tragedy.

The 1986 storyline was interesting enough in how Kate is trying to piece the story together, and her interactions with Thomas’ grandson Oliver. In some ways though it felt a little bit weaker than the 1930s storyline; Kate is grieving throughout the story over the loss of her mother, but that seems to be the only thing going for the character. Despite being the main narrator, she didn’t feel as fleshed out a character.

Additionally, there was something about the writing that sort of turned me off. Kate’s narrative “voice” doesn’t seem to match the sort of person she is or the life she leads somehow, it felt stilted and unnatural at times, and something that was too noticeable for me at times that it distracted me a bit from the story. The intercut between Kate and Thomas’ narrative can also be a wee bit confusing at times; there’s a signature that notes that the narrative had turned over to Thomas, but the switch back doesn’t always include a note; this might just be in the ARC though.

Despite of all this, I did enjoy reading The Book of Lost and Found and following Kate as she uncovers the truth behind her mother’s lineage. Themes of love, loss, and estrangement and the role of family dynamics were all very interesting to read. Readers of Kate Morton and Lucinda Riley’s books will want to check out this novel.

Final rating: 3.5/5