Lost & Found
by Davis, Brooke
- Used
- near fine
- Hardcover
- first
- Condition
- Near Fine/Near Fine
- ISBN 10
- 0525954686
- ISBN 13
- 9780525954682
- Seller
-
Pueblo, Colorado, United States
Payment Methods Accepted
About This Item
New York, New York, U.S.A.: Dutton, 2015. Book. Near Fine. Hardcover. 1st U. S. Edition. Book has a light bump to top corner of back board. Dust jacket does have a little crease and corner wear. Dust jacket protected by a removable Brodart cover..
Reviews
On Mar 15 2015, CloggieDownunder said:
“The start date and the end date are always the important bits on the gravestones, written in big letters. The dash in between is always so small you can barely see it. Surely the dash should be big and bright and amazing, or not, depending on how you had lived”
Lost and Found is the first novel by Australian author, Brooke Davis. Seven-year-old Millie Bird has been keeping a list of Dead Things, but when she has to add her Dad to the list, she finds people are reluctant to answer her questions about death. Then her mother tells her to wait beside the Ginormous Ladies Underwear stand in the department store and doesn’t return. By the Second Night of Waiting, she has already encountered Karl the Touch Typist, escapee from a Nursing Home, and been saved from the Security Guard by Manny the Mannequin. Millie’s getaway from the store sees the eighty-seven year-old widower (and Manny) subjected to stern disapproval at the Police Station.
Meanwhile, reclusive widow, Agatha Pantha, known for her critical insults shouted at all who pass nearby, is moved to leave her house for the first time in seven years as she becomes aware of the young girl’s plight. What ensues in the quest to find Millie’s mother is an escapade involving a bus trip, a journey on the Indian Pacific, a stolen car, a desert trek, a pub brawl, Super Heroes and encounters with people who are variously surly, helpful, obstructive and occasionally dangerous.
Davis gives the reader a cast of quirky characters, an original plot and many laugh-out-loud moments, as well as the odd lump-in-the-throat one. Millie’s observations of the world around her are delightful and often perceptive: “Helen’s small for a grown-up, but wide, as if all her height has gone outwards” and “The graves are separated by signs into different religions, so that, Millie assumes, the Heavens don’t get mixed up” and “A sweet smell follows her like a smell-shadow” are just a few examples. Agatha comments on effect of a death in the neighbourhood: “She saw the street rally around them, carrying their thank-God-it-was-you-and-not-me food”; and on ageing: “She can see Age settling like Glad Wrap over the surface of this woman’s hand…”
Davis paints some marvellous word pictures: “A white ute roars along a dirt road half a mile away, dust spraying behind it as though it’s waterskiing in a red lake” and “There’s a music to her snores, surely, in their rise and fall, an indication of how life works, in its ups and downs. He wants to graph the sound, and imagines mountains on a page, wide, curvy ones, rippled lines” and “Karl always felt as if he was thudding everywhere next to her, crunching leaves underfoot with such violence, sneezing as though he was trying to put a tear in the air” all demonstrate her skill with words.
Despite the fact that the ending seems a bit rushed, leaving a somewhat unfinished feel, this is a moving novel that will have the reader thinking about love and loss and grief. Millie gets the final word: “… you should be able to hug all the mums who aren’t yours, because some people don’t have mums and what are they supposed to do with all the hugs they have?” An outstanding debut.
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Details
- Bookseller
- Ash Grove Heirloom Books (US)
- Bookseller's Inventory #
- 006310
- Title
- Lost & Found
- Author
- Davis, Brooke
- Format/Binding
- Hardcover
- Book Condition
- Used - Near Fine
- Jacket Condition
- Near Fine
- Edition
- 1st U. S. Edition
- ISBN 10
- 0525954686
- ISBN 13
- 9780525954682
- Publisher
- Dutton
- Place of Publication
- New York, New York, U.S.A.
- Date Published
- 2015
- Keywords
- collectible
Terms of Sale
Ash Grove Heirloom Books
All books are fully guaranteed to be as described or your money refunded. Returns accepted for books as described for purchase price only, shipping costs will be paid by purchaser. Collectible books shipped in sturdy boxes. Readers copies and books $15 and under may be shipped in padded envelopes. Packing is negotiable. Recycled materials used when possible and practical. Shipping via USPS. Oversized books have additional shipping built into price.
About the Seller
Ash Grove Heirloom Books
Biblio member since 2005
Pueblo, Colorado
About Ash Grove Heirloom Books
Seller of modern first editions and signed books.
Glossary
Some terminology that may be used in this description includes:
- Fine
- A book in fine condition exhibits no flaws. A fine condition book closely approaches As New condition, but may lack the...
- Brodart
- Generally used to refer to a clear plastic cover that is sometimes added to the dustjacket or outside covering of a book. The...
- Jacket
- Sometimes used as another term for dust jacket, a protective and often decorative wrapper, usually made of paper which wraps...