The Lost Properties of Love

What if you could tell the truth about who you are, without risking losing the one you love? This is a book about love affairs and why we choose to have them; a book for anyone who has ever loved and wondered what it is all about.

How do you learn to be a grown-up when you’ve never got over the death of a parent? What makes a ‘happy family’? What happens if you can’t stop thinking about an ex? And what does commitment really mean?

In this genre-defying memoir, Sophie Ratcliffe travels through time, space and great literature to capture the complex and often messy nature of life, love – and grief. Beautifully crafted, painfully funny and frank about things that most people keep to themselves, The Lost Properties of Love is a game-changing exploration of the human heart.

Reviews

‘An ingeniously constructed tribute to messy relationships’ Prospect Magazine, Best Biographies and Memoirs of 2019

‘Booksellers needn't fret about where to shelve this limpid, funny, haunting meditation on love, loss and parenting: just put it on your best tables and watch it fly’ Patrick Gale

‘Magnificent… The Lost Properties of Love is glorious on the journeys of life, love and loss, stirringly intimate, deeply painful, occasionally hilarious. It deserves to do brilliantly.’ Philippe Sands, author of East West Street

‘Deeply moving … Sophie Ratcliffe has rummaged in her heart and produced a memoir of books, trains, love and grief. If you have ever lost an umbrella, an earring or someone close to you, you have found your book.’ Andy Miller, author of The Year of Reading Dangerously 

‘A mesmerising book about the messiness of life, love and marriage, and the pain of losing the one you love … raw, truthful, witty and occasionally sublime.’  Paula Byrne, bestselling author of The Real Jane Austen

‘Sophie Ratcliffe brings a breathtaking honesty and a cool precision to her imaginative meditation on the lessons of Anna Karenina – it is a true tour de force which is both moving and exhilarating to read.’ Rosamund Bartlett, author of Tolstoy: A Life and the translator of Anna Karenina

‘A lovely, intricate book and devastatingly honest. I think every truthful person will find themselves mirrored here.’ Craig Raine

'Wonderful and highly individual … The pages crackle with her cleverness and she has a genius for concision … Witty and original, but also human.' Spectator

‘A compelling and very honest book. At times it made me think of Tracey Emin’s bed! So many of the details and detritus of a life arranged in a work of art.’ Neil Tennant musician and co-founder of the Pet Shop Boys

‘An intricate, fiercely intelligent memoir.’ Observer

About the author

Sophie Ratcliffe is an academic, writer, and literary critic. She teaches English at the University of Oxford, where she is an Associate Professor and Fellow of Lady Margaret Hall. She is the author of On Sympathy (Oxford University Press), and edited the authorised edition of P. G. Wodehouse’s letters. In her academic work, she is interested in ideas of emotion and the history of how we feel. She reviews regularly for the national press, and has served as a judge of a number of literary prizes, including the Baillie Gifford and Wellcome Book Prize.