Shortlisted for the Costa First Novel Award 2014
Shortlisted for the National Book Awards Popular Fiction Book of the Year 2014
Shortlisted for the National Book Awards New Writer of the Year 2014
Sunday Times Top Ten Bestseller
Elizabeth is Missing, Emma Healey's stunning debut novel, introduces a mystery, an unsolved crime and one of the most unforgettable characters since Mark Haddon's Christopher. Meet Maud ...
'Elizabeth is missing', reads the note in Maud's pocket in her own handwriting.
Lately, Maud's been getting forgetful. She keeps buying peach slices when she has a cupboard full, forgets to drink the cups of tea she's made and writes notes to remind herself of things. But Maud is determined to discover what has happened to her friend, Elizabeth, and what it has to do with the unsolved disappearance of her sister Sukey, years back, just after the war.
A fast-paced mystery with a wonderful leading character: Maud will make you laugh and cry, but she certainly won't be forgotten.
'Elizabeth Is Missing will stir and shake you: an investigation into a seventy-year-old crime, through the eyes of the most likeably unreliable of narrators. But the real mystery at its compassionate core is the fragmentation of the human mind.' - Emma Donoghue
'A thrillingly assured, haunting and unsettling novel, I read it at a gulp' - Deborah Moggach
Emma Healey is 28 years old and grew up in London. She has spent most of her working life in libraries, bookshops and galleries. She completed the MA in Creative Writing: Prose at UEA in 2011. Elizabeth is Missing is her first novel.
Was this book good? It certainly was. Did I enjoy it? I'm not so sure. 'Elizabeth is Missing' is a strongly written tale of a woman named Maud who suffers from Dementia. It is narrated by Maud herself, and we witness her deteriorating mental health through her own account. It is touching, fast paced and respectful.
Interspersed with Maud's present are her memories of the disappearance of her sister Sukey in the aftermath of WWII. I found this element to be the weakest part of the novel. The characterisation of Maude as a child did not have enough difference to Maud as an old woman with dementia, meaning the divide between her earlier life and her declining mental health was not contrasting enough. The resolution of the 70 year old mystery seemed almost convenient and too easy. I would have preferred to have Emma Healey focus her story more on Maud in the present; her relationship with her family was very moving, and the support she receives from her daughter and granddaughter was truly touching.
I found elements of this novel very difficult to read, and yet I feel somehow this was the point. I disliked the way that everyone at the beginning of the narrative seemed to know exactly where Elizabeth was but chose not to share it, or seemed to be intentionally vague. This irritation however was most likely intentional as we only have Maud as the narrator. We are frustrated because we don't get the information we want, and yet it's likely she's recently had it and simply doesn't recount it in the narrative because she can't remember. It was a brilliant stroke to almost make the reader feel as if they are only getting parts of the story, creating an idea that we can understand what Maud is feeling.
It is not the kind of book I would usually read, however I'm glad I branched out to give this one a go. It was brilliantly written, equal parts touching and irritating.
