The Lost Life

A story about love, chance and T.S. Eliot.

England, September 1934. Two young lovers, Catherine and Daniel, have trespassed into the rose garden of Burnt Norton, an abandoned house in the English countryside. Hearing the sound of footsteps, they hide, and then witness the poet T.S. ('Tom') Eliot and his close friend Emily enter the garden and bury a mysterious tin in the earth. Tom and Emily knew each other in America in their youth; now in their forties, they have come together again. In the enclosed world of an English village one autumn, their story becomes entwined with that of Catherine and Daniel, who are certain in their newfound love and full of possibility. From one of Australia's finest writers, this is a moving, lyrical novel about poetry and inspiration, the incandescence of first love and the yearning for a life that may never be lived.

'Beautiful and poetically attentive novel' Australian Literary Review.

'A fine work ... Carroll's prose has a sublime rhythmic quality - it is lyrical and precise, almost as if he has sung words onto the page.' Australian Book Review

Shortlisted for Barbara Jefferis Award
Shortlisted for ALS Gold Medal 2010