The Things That We Lost

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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. 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!) There are other antagonists too, and Avani and Nik aren’t always their best selves. However, you get to know the pair well enough to realise that their behaviour while experiencing a series of significant upheavals isn’t representative of their whole characters. I could particularly identify with their feelings about Rohan’s house, which Avani has to empty and put on the market. Writea message in a bottleto other players about anything. Tell a story, share a secret, try to help a player or even harm them.

The story is told through the perspectives of both Avani and Nik. How significant was it for you to keep these two strands distinct? I saw you said in an interview that the first draft of the novel was told all from Nik’s perspective. Why did you decide to add in sections told from Avani’s perspective? An old BMW forms the eye of an emotional hurricane with Nik unable to understand why his mother is so determined that he should sell it. A dear friend of Maddie’s died under suspicious circumstances over a decade ago, and it continues to haunt Maddie. On top of that, she is trapped in an unhappy marriage, and she begins to think much of that has to do with the guilt from which she still suffers. Maybe she could have done more. Maybe one different decision could have made a difference for her friend.That’s not to say that this book is all sweetness and light, at all. We learn that Avani was abused by her mother, and Elliot was mistreated by both of his parents. These scenes, as well those where Nik faces racism when he goes away to university outside of London, are uncomfortable to read, but necessarily so. Maddie is a woman in her thirties, an author and a mother whose marriage seems to be falling apart. She goes to bed one night consumed with guilt over the betrayal she has committed. However, she wakes up the next day ten years younger, with a man in her bed who is not her husband and her two little girls never born. She has to learn to adapt to this new reality and bear the consequences of it. It was winner of the 2021 Merky Books New Writers Prize – Merky Books is a PRH imprint set up with Stormzy with a worthy aim to publish “bold voices from untraditional spaces that are inclusive and intersectional .. [and] .. to break down barriers in the publishing industry”. As an aside one of its very best publications was Derek Owusu’s brilliant Desmond Elliott winning “That Reminds Me”. The New Writers Prize is a key part of their strategy – aimed at “unpublished and under-represented writers aged 16-30 from the UK and the Republic of Ireland” and Patel, a UEA Creative Writing Graduate born in Paris and who grew up in NW London with Indian parents, won from some 2000 entries with an extract from what went on to be this novel.

The Things That We Lost by Jyoti Patel is a poignantly rendered novel of family, loss and secrets, and the depths we go to protect those we love— and ourselves. Overcome by the recent death of his beloved grandfather, Nik turns to question the mystery surrounding the unexpected death of his late father, Elliot, who passed away before he was born. So begins a gentle unravelling of the layers of family history and painful secrets carefully masked by Nik’s mother, Avani, piece by piece, until both mother and son reach a tense precipice that threatens to fracture their entire relationship. The Things We Lost is a thoughtful book that gave me all the feels, and if you know me, you know how much I love an emotional read. I am guilty of asking for that reset button, but what if it comes at an extreme cost? Maybe there’s a different answer to that question that lies within us all. Loved this! The thing that really stood out for me in this book is Patel's representation of second - and third generation 'immigrant' families and mixed-race relationships in contemporary London; something that we haven't really seen enough of in literature given the prevalence of people in London (the setting of this book) with our vast array of varied inheritances and the mixing pot of our friendship groups from school onwards. In her debut novel, The Things That We Lost , Jyoti Patel grounds the abstraction of generational trauma in the vivid, tangible stories of Avani and Nik, a mother and son living in north-west London. Nik struggles to come to terms with his father’s death, as his mother refuses to talk about it; Avani strives to protect Nik from suffering, after own mother Agniben tormented her during childhood. Agniben, a Gujarati immigrant, has her own demons too, having moved to England following Kenyan independence and “just weeks after Powell’s ‘Rivers of Blood’ speech”. Maggie Giles, a Canadian writer, has made her debut with 'The Things We Lost'. I got an opportunity to read an ARC (Advanved Reader Copy) of this book though the book is only getting out on April 19th.While the similarities between our experiences end there, my feelings towards this novel only grew deeper. Jyoti Patel has beautifully captured the impact that those who are no longer with us leave behind. She has thought of it all. The inner conflicts, the misunderstandings, the things that are said because the things we want to say go unsaid. The grief that is carried alone because misguidedly, we think it will be a burden to share with others. There are great themes of loss and bereavement, light touches on racism and the differences between multi-cultural London and whichever northern town Nik chooses to study in. There's an examination of the challenges of holding onto your friends when your lives start to diverge - and that's for both mother and son. Despite having a degree in literature, it wasn’t until my early twenties that I discovered novels by writers from the diaspora. The next novel feels like a lighter, funnier read following a British Gujarati female protagonist in her late twenties. Families and secrets are also a big theme.

This book was featured in the 2023 version of the influential annual Observer Best Debut Novelist feature (past years have included Natasha Brown, Caleb Azumah Nelson, Douglas Stuart, Sally Rooney, Rebecca Watson, Yara Rodrigues Fowler, JR Thorp Bonnie Garmus, Gail Honeyman among many others). Maddie has made some poor choices in her adult life, and while she loves her children and her husband, she has been unfulfilled for a long time. Her and Nathan have grown apart, and when Maddie meets up with her ex-boyfriend at a conference, her life begins to spiral out of control. She also cannot seem to get past the guilt of her actions that may have contributed to her friend Gina's death years prior. It continues to haunt her, and Maddie wonders what she could have done differently in her life to change this outcome? The film was released in the United States and Canada on October 19, 2007 and in the United Kingdom on February 1, 2008. a b "Things We Lost in the Fire (2007) - Weekend Box Office". Box Office Mojo . Retrieved 2007-10-25.

The novel touches on intense themes such as grief and trauma. What was the motivation behind this?

Narrated from the dual perspectives of 18 year old Nikhil (Nik) and his mother Avani, the novel switches between the past and present. And we are with Nik every step of the way as following the loss of his beloved grandfather, he tries to piece together the events surrounding his father's death. I think we often wonder what could have been, and this debut thriller delivers! It dives deep into the darkest secrets of Maddie's past. Will Maddie realize her mistakes, right her wrongs and make things right to alter her course now that she knows what is in store for her future? Will she meet Nathan again and be reunited with her children? The Things That We Lost is a beautifully tender exploration of family, loss and the lengths to which we go to protect the ones we love. I remember at the time I was listening to podcasts and reading books like The Good Immigrant, Why I’m No Longer Talking to White People About Race . One thing that kept coming up was this idea that we stay in cities because when we go out to very rural towns, we do feel ‘othered’ in some way. I realised I hadn’t seen that experience represented so much in fiction. The reason why I don’t name the town Nik goes to is because I’ve heard so many stories about people who go to [less diverse] uni towns who have experienced the same thing, and I wanted it to be universal. I will have readers say to me, ‘that’s definitely Durham’, ‘that’s definitely Exeter’, ‘that’s definitely Norwich’, ‘that’s definitely Lincoln’. It’s so interesting.

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. 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 definitely wanted to keep their stories distinct because they’re such different people. It was a lot of fun to play with their voices and switch from the more meditative and nostalgic passages with Avani to the faster-paced dialogue-heavy chapters with Nik. It allowed me to exercise two very different writing muscles.The prologue had me hooked. Avani is introduced, and while I immediately had a sense of where the story of her past might be headed, it still grabbed me in, as I wanted to not only know if my instinct was right, but the details to be filled in. Did you ever consider including any sections from the perspective of Agniben, Avani’s mother? She seemed like a very complicated character.