What Was Lost: A Novel

A tender and sharply observant debut novel about a missing young girl―winner of the Costa First Novel Award and long-listed for the Booker Prize the Orange Prize and The Guardian First Book Award. In the 1980s Kate Meaney―Top Secret notebook and toy monkey in tow―is hard at work as a junior detective. Busy trailing suspects and carefully observing everything around her at the newly opened Green Oaks shopping mall she forms an unlikely friendship with Adrian the son of a local shopkeeper. But when this curious independent-spirited young girl disappears Adrian falls under suspicion and is hounded out of his home by the press. . Then in 2003 Adrians sister Lisa―stuck in a dead-end relationship―is working as a manager at Your Music a discount record store. Every day she tears her hair out at the outrageous behavior of her customers and colleagues. But along with a security guard Kurt she becomes entranced by the little girl glimpsed on the malls surveillance cameras. As their after-hours friendship intensifies Lisa and Kurt investigate how these sightings might be connected to the unsettling history of Green Oaks itself. Written with warmth and wit What Was Lost is a haunting debut from an incredible new talent.