Stuff
Product Details
Scribner, March 2010
Hardcover, 256 pages
ISBN-10: 1439159823
ISBN-13: 9781439159828
Description
On a cold January morning Susan leaves her husband alone for a few minutes and returns to find him gone. Suffering from dementia, no longer able to dress or feed or wash himself, he has wandered alone into a frigid landscape with no sense of home or direction. Lost..
Over the course of one weekend, the massive search for her husband brings Susan together with Jeff, a search and rescue expert and social worker preoccupied with his young wife’s betrayal. In Jeff’s care is Corey, a mute eleven-year-old boy who has been abandoned by his family after accidentally setting a tragic fire. As the temperature drops and the search and rescue effort threatens to become one of search and recovery, they each confront haunting memories and difficult choices that will have an unexpected impact on their collective future. .
From the intersection of these three lives emerges an arresting portrait of the shifting terrain of marriage and the devastating effects of physical and psychological damage. Written in spare, beautiful prose, Lost explores the lengths we will go to take care of someone, and the ways in which responsibility, love, and sorrow can bind people together..
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Browse Inside LostHow did you come to write this book?
for years I was haunted by a local incident: a young boy set a fire in his house that killed his brother and left his family homeless. The fire was ruled accidental, but I wondered about the forces that were set in motion before and after this devastating event. One afternoon, a poet friend and I were having tea and setting up writing experiments for each other. She told me about an assignment she'd had in an art class to create a multi-media artwork responding to the prompt, "Day of..." After some musing, she said, "how about Day of Fire?" The years of thinking about this boy and his tragic fire burst through my pen and the novel was born.
“Lost is gripping, riveting, electrifying, arresting and sometimes frightening. Highly emotional and understatedly intelligent, with several narratives that come together seamlessly and unpredictably. Susan is a great lead character: warm, complicated and totally believable. I hate to say it because it'll sound so commonplace, but it's got to be said: I literally couldn't put this book down.”
— Stephen Dixon, author of Meyer
— Stephen Dixon, author of Meyer
“Lost is a remarkably complex and intricately told story. The nuances and surprising angles of observation Lichtenstein brings to bear upon her characters and on the situations in which they find themselves-her elegant and sly artfulness-are constantly surprising and always illuminating. Alice Lichtenstein has written a novel that is a constant amazement!”
-- Robb Forman Dew, author of Dale Loves Sophie to Death
“Here is a virtuoso novel which manages to be both a nail-biting page turner and a lyrical meditation on fate and longing. Lost interweaves the stories of three inimitable characters who feel so real they're likely to enter the reader's dreams. This is the type of book you'll want to press into the hands of everyone you know - for the story is intensely suspenseful and achingly beautiful, a masterful exploration of the intricate, heart-rending ways we all seek to survive.”
-- Rebecca Godfrey, author of Under the Bridge
"Lost is a beautiful book, told by a lyrical new voice. A warm welcome to Alice Lichtenstein."
-- Roxana Robinson, author of Cost
“Here is a virtuoso novel which manages to be both a nail-biting page turner and a lyrical meditation on fate and longing. Lost interweaves the stories of three inimitable characters who feel so real they're likely to enter the reader's dreams. This is the type of book you'll want to press into the hands of everyone you know - for the story is intensely suspenseful and achingly beautiful, a masterful exploration of the intricate, heart-rending ways we all seek to survive.”
Rebecca Godfrey, author of Under the Bridge
Rebecca Godfrey, author of Under the Bridge
"Lost is gripping, riveting, electrifying, arresting, and sometimes frightening. Highly emotional and understatedly intelligent, with several narratives that come together seamlessly and unpredictably. Susan is a great lead character: warm, complicated, and totally believable. I hate to say it because it'll sound so commonplace, but it's got to be said: I literally couldn't put this book down."
-- Stephen Dixon, author of Meyer
"Lost is a beautiful book, told by a lyrical new voice. A warm welcome to Alice Lichtenstein."
-- Roxana Robinson, author of Cost
"Lost is a remarkably complex and intricately told story. The nuances and surprising angles of observation Lichtenstein brings to bear upon her characters and on the situations in which they find themselves -- her elegant and sly artfulness -- are constantly surprising and always illuminating. Alice Lichtenstein has written a novel that is a constant amazement!"
-- Robb Forman Dew, author of Dale Loves Sophie To Death
North Adams Transcript, March 12, 2010
...MANCHESTER CENTER -- Acclaimed short-story writer and author Alice Lichtenstein will present her new novel "Lost" on Saturday, March 13 at 7 p.m. at Northshire Bookstore. Alice Lichtenstein is the author of "The Genius of the World" and ...
