Lost & Found
The award-winning bestseller
-
-
4.1 • 170 Ratings
-
-
- $9.99
Publisher Description
LOST & FOUND, the bestselling Australian fiction debut of 2014, now an international sensation, will have you laughing, crying and, by the end, feeling just a little wiser . . . A stunning first novel from one of Australia's most exciting young authors.
At seven years old, Millie Bird realises that everything is dying around her. She wasn't to know that after she had recorded twenty-seven assorted creatures in her Book of Dead Things her dad would be a Dead Thing, too.
Agatha Pantha is eighty-two and has not left her house since her husband died. She sits behind her front window, hidden by the curtains and ivy, and shouts at passers-by, roaring her anger at complete strangers. Until the day Agatha spies a young girl across the street.
Karl the Touch Typist is eighty-seven when his son kisses him on the cheek before leaving him at the nursing home. As he watches his son leave, Karl has a moment of clarity. He escapes the home and takes off in search of something different.
Three lost people needing to be found. But they don't know it yet. Millie, Agatha and Karl are about to break the rules and discover what living is all about.
'Imagine THE UNLIKELY PILGRIMAGE OF HAROLD FRY meets THE ROSIE PROJECT'
-MARIE CLAIRE
'heartbreaking and funny and brilliant'
-HERALD SUN
'a literary sensation'
-AUSTRALIAN ARTS REVIEW
Winner:
General Fiction Book Of The Year, Australian Book Industry Awards (ABIA) 2015
Matt Richell New Writer Of The Year, Australian Book Industry Awards (ABIA) 2015
Shortlisted:
Debut Fiction, Indie Book Awards 2015
Australian Booksellers Association Neilsen BookData Booksellers Choice Award 2015
APPLE BOOKS REVIEW
Funny, sad and unabashedly charming, this fantastic debut from Australian writer Brooke Davis follows Millie Bird, an odd and wise seven-year-old who’s abandoned in a department store. As Millie creates a surrogate family for herself amid the clothing racks, makeup counters and toy displays—and then embarks on an impromptu journey across Australia—she brings together a cast of damaged and isolated characters drawn to her sincerity and quirks.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
This novel by Australian travel writer and first-time novelist Davis attempts to use whimsy as a delivery mechanism for a meditation on loss and loneliness among the very young and very old. Seven-year-old Millie Bird is obsessed with death, inscribing her encounters with dead things in a "Book of Dead Things." Entry twenty-eight is "MY DAD." As a result of losing her husband and Millie's father, it's not long before Millie's unstable mother drops her at a Perth department store by the "Ginormous Women's Underwear" section and never returns. Millie spends a couple of nights hiding out in the store, seemingly undetected by anyone except a mannequin she treats as a companion and an old man she approaches in the store's caf who identifies himself as "Karl the Touch Typist." Karl is battling his own grief after the loss of his wife. Finally caught by store security, Millie, with Karl's help, escapes authorities and makes her way home, where an elderly neighbor, Agatha Pantha, an unpleasant shut-in following her husband's death, somehow decides it would be better to accompany Millie to find her mother in Melbourne than to call the police. Karl catches up with them and the unlikely trio travels across Australia. Ultimately, this journey toward understanding and accepting death is too predictable, offering little aside from the quirks of its characters.
Customer Reviews
Treat Yourself
This quirky, funny, sad story will stay with you long after you finish reading the last page. I loved it so much that when I finished reading it I went back to the beginning and started reading it again.
Favourite book this year!
It's hard to express how much I loved this book. Some parts are hilariously laugh-out-loud funny, and other parts made me cry and just broke my heart. This is an amazingly moving but easy-to-read story. Fantastic characters, and written by a young Aussie author too!
Lost & Found
A delightful surprise on a subject handled with insight and wonderfully quirky humour!