The Things That We Lost

Product Information

In essence, the story's premise is an interesting one. The author has employed this concept of choice to explore how a single choice/decision taken by a person could affect so many people around them. She makes the reader wonder about all the seemingly inconsequential choices they might be making and gets them to pause a second. The story opens with the narrator’s father leaving her with the Kinsellas, a couple who live on a farm in rural Ireland. Cautious at first, the compassion she is shown by the couple draws her closer to them. She is bathed, fed, loved, and told, fervently, “there are no secrets in this house”. Except there are, or rather, there is one, sitting quietly behind the couple’s tenderness towards the girl. It’s the memory of their dead son, whose clothes the narrator wears to mass, whose room she sleeps in. A subtle, beautiful tale, all the more powerful for its succinctness. Jerry is still struggling with his addiction but seems to be well on his way to recovery. He leaves red flowers on Audrey's doorstep with a note that reads "Accept the good," a phrase which Jerry himself had told Brian, and that Brian had subsequently said to Audrey many times. London is also written so well, if you know it you'll have a strong visual of that hill in Harrow and the school children with the straw hats, (if you don't then take a fellow Londoner's word for its accuracy!)

So I try to get out of thrillerville by choosing what I thought was a Sliding Doors/Maybe in Another Life style story. Yet what did I get? A quasi-suspense book that didn't even really come full circle in the end.The novel has two main protagonists – Nik(hu) and his mum Avani, and is partly set in the second half of 2017 as Nik prepares for his first term at University (studying History at an unnamed Northern seaside University) and part across Avani’s earlier life. The Prologue has her at University in 1990 studying Mathematics and also introduces us to her then boyfriend and future father of Nik – Elliott – from a poor and abusive white family and her older brother Chand. I wanted to follow a family torn apart by grief for six months, with flashes to their past, and see where they led me and what they had to say. The ending reflects this too —I metaphorically show how they’ve both grown, how Avani finally opens up to Nik. I leave them to it without having a neat and tidy conversation that wraps everything up because I don’t believe that would have happened in real life. An assured debut from a vital new voice. About family, grief and belonging, Patel weaves an intricate story that will stay with you.' - Nikesh Shukla, author of Brown Baby and The Good Immigrant

Audrey gets tragic news delivered to her door by the local police: Brian has been killed in an attempt to defend a woman who was being beaten by her husband. On the day of the funeral Audrey realizes that she has forgotten to inform Jerry of Brian's death. Her brother Neal delivers the message to Jerry and takes him to the funeral.

Can you tell us more about winning the #Merky Books Prize?

Maggie Giles didn’t waste a single word writing this story. Every single thought and action leads to its beautiful unraveling. And, even though she uses an old trope, the story feels fresh and creative. However, it's another death which proves to be the catalyst for the shifting of the dynamics between mother and son. Even though the death of Nik's grandfather isn't entirely unexpected, the gap he leaves is profound and I thought the recognition of the way bereavement changes everything was considered with such insight. Events in the present day take place over just a few months and there are fascinating lines drawn between the more recent upheaval and that which occurred long ago I really enjoyed the way romance was dealt with in this novel. Avani and Nik both have interactions in the book which could be described as romantic but these never read as cheesy or saccharine to me. I have a very low tolerance for cringe so was grateful for the subtle way Patel included these relationships without them overshadowing other elements of the story.

Writea message in a bottleto other players about anything. Tell a story, share a secret, try to help a player or even harm them. It was released on DVD and HD DVD on March 4, 2008. A Blu-ray version was released on March 24, 2009. It’s through this experience that Maddie learns just how much her own emotions have affected her path in life. That do-over she so desperately wanted? Was it really that? At the cost of no longer having her daughters, or was it just a matter of accepting her feelings and walking through the grief over the loss of her friend?

I definitely connected with this book and with the characters due to my Gujarati heritage. I recognised a lot of Gujarati traditions, words and phrases which are so familiar to me and it was so refreshing seeing them written in a book. I'm more than happy to give this 5/5 stars. As I said, another recent debut novel that is great in its execution and leaving me wanting more in the future by Jyoti Patel. The post prologue open chapter has Nik visiting his dying grandfather (Avani’s father) in hospital before his death – his grandfather gives him a key to something that he has kept for Nik for years, but is reluctant to discuss Elliott, suggesting instead Nik speaks to Chand.