Lost and Found

by Tom Winter

[Leah]

When I was offered Lost & Found by Tom Winter to review I was very much intrigued. I took a look at the first chapter and I desperately wanted to know more about Carole’s life, and I was also really interested in Albert’s role in the novel, so I happily agreed to review the novel. It’s taken me a bit of time to wade through my review pile and come to Lost & Found but now that I’ve read it, I’m so pleased I accepted it to review because it was a wonderful little novel, not my normal read, no, but engaging and enjoyable nonetheless.

Lost & Found is the tale of two people who are very different to each other. There’s Carol, who at 38 is fed up of her life as she knows it. Her daughter hates her, she’s sick of the sight of her husband and she wants to leave her current life for a new, better life. But on the day she decides to leave, her whole world comes crashing down when her husband reveals he has a lump, and all of a sudden all of her plans go out of the window. In a bid to get her feelings out there, she decides to write letters to the universe, leaving them un-marked so no one will ever read them. Albert has reached an age he never wanted to reach: He’s about to retire and he’s not happy because he feels like he’s being pushed to one side, that everyone at the post office where he works feels he’s too useless to do anything but sort the undeliverable mail. When he comes across Carol’s letters, he finds himself reading them and becoming more and more interested in her life as he waits each day for the possibility of a new letter arriving…

I really enjoyed Lost & Found. I loved reading Carol’s letters, but what I loved most of all about the novel was Albert. He made the novel for me. I felt so sad for him that his life was the way it was, with only his cat, Gloria, and Carol’s letters for company. He deserved so much better, and I absolutely LOVED reading about him, I loved every time we had finished with Carol and were back with Albert. Don’t get me wrong, I liked Carol, but it was Albert who made the book for me. I loved the two differing perspectives on modern life, how they saw the world in different ways. This was a book I thoroughly enjoyed, and I can’t wait to read Tom Winter’s second novel as he’s a very talented writer and I was glued to Lost & Found, and I’d love for there to be another character like Albert in Tom’s next novel as he was such an ace character, and it’s nice every once in a while to see the world in a different way, and Albert offered that, and I miss him already.