The Keeper of Lost Things

Product Information

Eventually Laura, Freddy, and Sunshine find a way to reunite the objects with their owners, and once they do so, the healing process can begin. Charming and endlessly endearing, Hogan’s novel of a collector of lost objects and his determined mission to reunite them with their owners is a feel-good tale about atonement, affection and doing the right thing. The title is bold white font in the centre of the cover and Ruth’s name is in a smaller white font at the bottom of the cover.

It is very easy to read and a great story, both from the point of view of the “lost things” and also from the way the lives of the characters in the book develop.The chief criticism was that there were too many issues thrown into the narrative: Down syndrome, Alzheimers, violent husbands, lost partners, hauntings, and many others as well as the principal subject of lost items. The back stories, real or imagined, of lost-and- found objects form the centrepiece of this exquisite, absorbing novel, a potent cocktail of insightful psychological realism, whimsy and glittering magic, where hopes and new beginnings glint off the sharp edges of grief and loss. That event has coloured and haunted his entire life, with guilt over a broken promise, a lost communion medal, and led to the enormous collection of lost items which he has found with the hope of reuniting them with their owners.

All of our books are 100% brand new, unread and purchased directly from the publishers in bulk allowing us to pass the huge savings on to you! After agonizing for what feels like an eternity, I end up hauling five or six with me, so that way I can have a much more manageable struggle once I arrive at my destination. There is another couple whose story starts the day Anthony's fiance dies, all those years earlier, and their platonic love is just as strong as the love Anthony and his late fiance had for each other. It started off with charm but quickly fell apart into disjointed parallel storylines, with so many plot contrivances I was groaning.

Over the years he has filled his drawers and shelves with fragments of other people’s lives, and somehow they had helped to mend his-so cruelly shattered-and make it whole again. Add the ancillary characters who were only there to move the plot and by the time the ghost (yes, ghost) came in I was pretty much done. This superfluous scene was written to demonstrate two things: 1) that Vince is an asshole (already knew that) and 2) Freddy is a great guy (already knew that too).

When I finally picked it up I found a gentle and charming story about an elderly gentleman, Anthony, who collected and catalogued items, found and presumed lost. I found it to have a slow story line and then within 3 chapters of the end the 2 storylines merged together quite quickly. I think these minor deviations from reality were unnecessary and, for me, detracted from the perfection of the book.Her characters reveal themselves gradually, much as the found objects acquire layers of meaning as we become acquainted with their provenance and history. I would describe the novel as a modern day fairy tale in which fantastical events intertwine all of the characters and their fates. Maybe with a single positive - the first three chapters were quite good, and it's a terrible shame that Anthony Peardew didn't stick around because things went decidedly downhill after he died. Meanwhile, the best character of this novel, Sunshine, starts out strong but then becomes downsized to comic relief in the later chapters of the book.