A girl who is fascinated by death and a man whose wife has died are the main characters in this arty read. LOST AND FOUND skips around from person to person, also incorporating a week in the life of an elderly woman Agatha who never leaves her house, and various other eccentrics.
Karl is referred to as a touch typist, but he does not own a keyboard; he drums his fingers on surfaces to help him think out his words. After a chapter detailing his marriage and wife's death, we find him in a police station because he has absconded from a senior care home. Millie meanwhile is a child who takes her gumboots for a walk in the park, stares at dead dogs and keeps tight hold of a book about dead things. She fastens on to phrases people around her say, and wonders if it really is possible to die happy. She wants to travel, and so does Karl.
The author Brooke Davis wrote LOST & FOUND as part of her PhD in Creative Writing in Western Australia. The style will not suit everyone so I recommend reading a sample chapter before deciding to buy for yourself or a friend. This is Brooke Davis's first novel and I was amused by the five pages of acknowledgements at the end in which I thought she revealed more about herself than did the book.
If you're into experimental writing and feel that seniors and children have a lot in common, such as being told what to do by everyone else, LOST & FOUND may well suit your taste.
An irresistible debut novel about the wisdom of the very
young, the mischief of the very old, and the magic that
happens when no one else is looking
Millie Bird, seven years old and ever hopeful, always
wears
red gumboots to match her curly hair. Her struggling
mother,
grieving the death of Millieβs father, leaves her in the
big
ladiesβ underwear department of a local store and never
returns.
Agatha Pantha, eighty-two, has not left her houseβor
spoken
to another human beingβsince she was widowed seven years
ago. She fills the silence by yelling at passersby,
watching
loud static on TV, and maintaining a strict daily
schedule.
Karl the Touch Typist, eighty-seven, once used his fingers
to type out love notes on his wifeβs skin. Now that sheβs
gone, he types his words out into the air as he speaks.
Karlβs been committed to a nursing home, but in a moment
of
clarity and joy, he escapes. Now heβs on the lam.
Brought together at a fateful moment, the three embark
upon
a road trip across Western Australia to find Millieβs
mother. Along the way, Karl wants to find out how to be a
man again; Agatha just wants everything to go back to how
it
was.
Together they will discover that old age is not the same
as
death, that the young can be wise, and that letting
yourself
feel sad once in a while just might be the key to a happy
life.
No excerpt available.
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