Loved and Missed
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4.0 • 5 Ratings
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- £4.99
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- £4.99
Publisher Description
'I was in the story, feeling everything. I cared about every character . . . She writes beautifully. It was a total pleasure' Philippa Perry, author of The Book You Wish Your Parents Had Read
Susie Boyt writes with a mordant wit and vivid style which are at their best in Loved and Missed.
When your beloved daughter is lost in the fog of addiction and you make off with her baby in order to save the day, can willpower and a daring creative zeal carry you through ?
Examining the limits, disappointments and excesses of love in all its forms, this marvellously absorbing novel, full of insight and compassion, delights as much as it disturbs.
'She takes the study of love into uncharted territory and every sentence has its depth and pleasure' Linda Grant
'I am so moved: it carries a huge emotional power... I ache for them all. Poignant, witty, lyrical and perceptive' Joan Bakewell
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
British writer Boyt delivers a story of filial estrangement in her mordant and touching U.S. debut. The nonlinear narrative opens roughly 15 years ago with Ruth, a sixth-form teacher and single mother, hosting three friends in her London flat. One friend asks about Ruth's daughter, Eleanor, who left home several years earlier as a teen and is addicted to heroin. Ruth is raising Eleanor's toddler, Lily, who she feels has "compensated" her for losing her relationship with Eleanor. In a flashback, one of many poignant and sadly funny scenes, Ruth describes meeting Lily's "cavern-faced" father during a Christmas picnic. Describing how she attempted to inject cheer into the grim scene in the dingy park where they meet, Ruth reflects, "I was smiling all the while, just gently, but in my heart I was thinking this might be the saddest occasion of my life." Though the attention paid to Ruth's friends in the opening is a bit misleading, patient readers will appreciate Boyt's subtle and gradual accrual of details about Ruth's life, such as the identity and fate of Eleanor's father. Most powerful, though, is a final chapter from Lily's point of view as a late teen, as she reckons with her unorthodox upbringing and proves to have picked up Ruth's generosity and strong sense of observation—but not her sadness. Boyt's assured effort brims with intelligence and feeling.
