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| What Was Lost: A Novel | 
 enlarge | Author: Catherine O'flynn
Publisher: Holt Paperbacks
Category: Book
List Price: $14.00
Buy Used: $4.49
You Save: $9.51 (68%)
New (54) Used (35) from $4.49
Avg. Customer Rating:  20 reviews
Sales Rank: 10631
Media: Paperback
Edition: 1
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 256
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.6
Dimensions (in): 7.9 x 5.2 x 1.2
ISBN: 0805088334
Dewey Decimal Number: 823.92
EAN: 9780805088335
ASIN: 0805088334
Publication Date: June 24, 2008
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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Product Description
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, Adrian’s 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 mall’s 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.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 15 more reviews...
 Much more than a suburban thriller - a breath of fresh air ! June 7, 2008
16 out of 17 found this review helpful
Reading Catherine O'Flynn's debut novel "What Was Lost (WWL)" was a like a breath of fresh air coming after all those much lauded but grossly disappointing titles like last year's Booker prize winner. O'Flynn may be new to the game but she understands the essentials of good writing and what it takes to captivate and hold the reader's attention.
To me, WWL isn't so much a social commentary on the absurdity of consumerism as some have suggested, as it is about the sense of alienation and crushing loneliness afflicting individuals living in our modern age. From little Kate Meaney who lives in her make-believe world of detectives and potential victims, where she sleuths away all day with the help of her pet monkey Mickey, hence unwittingly becoming the subject of the mystery at the heart of the novel, to record store deputy manager Lisa who is stuck in an unsatisfactory relationship with that useless colleague-boyfriend of hers, to the lonely night shift security guard Kurt who nurses a secret and passes his hours gazing into that surveillance monitor of his at Green Oaks shopping mall, etc, etc.
Little Kate's mysterious disappearance all those years ago, her pet monkey Mickey's strange but timely re-emergence in the mall corridor one day, the secrets of the protagonist cast and related characters as they are gradually revealed, and the presence of ghostly ruminations by several anonymous persons after hours at the mall, all add convincingly to the spook factor that turns this quite wonderful and difficult to categorise book into a serious page turner as one works through its final pages.
But what kind of mystery novel is it that brings heartache and tears - the kind one least expects to experience and spill - in a heart thumping, heart wrenching denouement that unites and reveals the central characters in all their humanity. Little Kate's act of kindness that gave her poor underprivileged friend,Teresa a future must count as one of those pricelessly poignant moments that brought a lump in my throat.
"What Was Lost" is altogether more than an ordinary suburban thriller. What O'Flynn has created is a niche offering in a hybrid genre that both unreservedly entertains yet leaves the reader with the feeling that what he has read easily passes for serious literature. It won the Costa First Novel Award and in my opinion beats most of last year's Booker nominees hands down. I loved every moment of it !
 "The key problem with Green Oaks was the gulf between conditions for customers and conditions for staff." July 9, 2008
15 out of 15 found this review helpful
O'Flynn's seemingly effortless novel has a cumulative effect, a simple tale of people drifting through life with no center and scarce ambition. At the heart of all is young Kate Meaney, a self-styled private detective who spends her days tracking the activities of imagined suspects. In the UK in 1984, ten-year-old Kate blends in with the crowd, a stuffed toy in suit and spats, Mickey the Monkey, her constant companion. Terribly lonely since the death of her beloved father, Kate has fashioned an imaginary life, complete with detailed notebook and identity kit. Her only friend, Adrian, a young man of 22, works in his father's shop and enjoys Kate's vivid imagination as she describes "the Gentleman Embezzler, the Henchman and the Ruthless Assassin". Her favorite haunt is Green Oaks, the local mall, hub for employment, shopping and a temporary reprieve from boredom. Then one day, Kate goes missing, Adrian the last person to see her.
In 2003, Adrian's sister, Lisa, plods daily to a tedious job at Your Music in Green Oaks. Like other employees, Lisa is restricted to the dark warrens of employee access, far from the more attractive mall facilities created for customers. One of many who navigate these halls, Lisa is trapped in a dead end job, living with a man she no longer cares for, waiting patiently each year for the music CD that arrives from Adrian, their only connection since he ran away after Kate's disappearance. Kurt, a night shift security guard, is an equally lost soul, a loner who vaguely yearns for a life beyond his acute personal loss. When Kurt notices a familiar little girl on a security tape- possibly Kate- and Lisa stumbles over Kate's Mickey the Monkey, the two are drawn together, discovering common ground and a past connection that will challenge their plans for the future.
In an age when human commerce often accounts for the only social interaction of strangers, Green Oaks is a repository for failed dreams and unfulfilling jobs, a place where many toil with little inspiration, their lives reduced to eight-hour shifts and brief shopping forays. Diverse characters people this novel, most lonely, disappointed, disillusioned; but hope simmers beneath the surface of even the most banal interactions, Lisa and Kurt recognizing like-minded souls in one another, Kate a frail specter, her disappearance haunting them. Kate's bright innocence and enthusiasm, even in her profound loneliness, is a testament to the promise of youth, when anything can happen. Their early dreams long tarnished, Lisa and Kurt have almost given up, hostages to a predictable fate until they meet, sparking hopes of a larger world that does not leech the soul from dehumanized workers. Sweetly poignant, this novel is fresh and intuitive, a few hours' escape into possibility. Luan Gaines/ 2008.
 Good writing, mixed feelings about the book June 26, 2008
13 out of 19 found this review helpful
It's England in the 1980s-and loner Kate Meaney is a bright, inquisitive child who is passionate about being a junior detective. She is also a child who has been dealt a difficult hand. Kate doesn't have a mother, her father dies and she's left with an inattentive grandmother who allows her to come and go as she pleases.
One day Kate leaves her home to take an academic test and simply goes missing. Her adult friend Adrian is the last to see her and thus becomes a suspect. His life and the lives of others change forever following her disappearance.
The book forwards twenty years and a security guard at Green Oaks shopping mall sees a child carrying a stuffed monkey on the security camera. It appears to be Kate. Adrian's sister, Lisa works at the mall and befriends Kurt (security guard). Together they investigate the disappearance of Kate Meaney.
What Was Lost is a dark novel that tells Kate's story and then begins to meander through the lives and minds of people who were peripherally connected to Kate. The plot is stunning and the book is well written, but the story seems more suited to that of a novella than novel.
Armchair Interviews says: Each reader must decide for themselves about this novel.
What Was Found August 10, 2008
10 out of 10 found this review helpful
What a wonderful book. What a truly wonderful book. Moving, funny (actually, f-ing hilarious), beautifully observed and sheer joy to read.
This shouldn't come as a surprise. It has been longlisted or shortlisted for nearly every major literary prize going and has won its fair share as well. Deservedly so.
I really should have read it before now. Not just because of the above plaudits but because much of the story is set in and around a record shop which is based on a branch of HMV. Some of the characters are versions of people I knew during my time at that retailer. Also, everyone I know who has read it, including my other half, told me I would love it.
And I am so glad I did get round to it. This is essential reading for anyone who has ever worked in retail. O'Flynn conveys the weird and wonderful goings on within a record store with alarming accuracy. I laughed out loud in almost every chapter.
The novel is so much more than a witty account of salesfloor life though. The central story, of a young girl that goes missing in the 1980s only to appear to crop up again at a shopping mall in the present day, is completely enthralling and O'Flynn manages to weave together the various curious strands with consumate skill. This is a mystery that keeps you wondering right to the end and then doesn't disappoint you.
I was reminded, for brief seconds and at different points, of Thirteen by Sebastian Beaumont (the spooky bits), Black Swan Green by David Mitchell (the retro 80s stuff) and Tell Me Everything by Sarah Salway (the shop talk and fantasy lives of characters) which are all books I love. If you haven't read What Was Lost yet, what are you waiting for?
(Originally reviewed on the Me And My Big Mouth blog).
A mixed bag August 11, 2008
8 out of 8 found this review helpful
When I turned the final page of this book, I thought about how much I liked the story. Saying that, I am giving this 4 stars because I thought there were parts (the middle!) that were a slow-go for me.
Summary, no spoilers:
The book starts out in 1984, and we follow the escapades of 10 year old Kate Meaney. She is a precocious, imaginative, but lonely little girl, who decides that she wants to open up a detective agency with a partner - her toy stuffed animal, a monkey named Mickey. Her only real friends are a rebellious schoolmate, and a young man named Adrian, who lives next door.
Kate decides the best place to scope out the criminals is the local mall, Green Oaks. She spends most of her free time there, trying to spy on the would-be robbers and criminals, copiously taking notes.
The next section of book takes place in 2003, and we know that Kate had disappeared without a trace back in 1984. We learn about the repercussions from that, and we are introduced to Lisa, Adrian's sister who works at the Green Oaks Mall's music store, and Kurt, the security guard there.
I thought the first section of this novel was absolutely riveting, and I just loved Kate. When I got to the second section, I just couldn't get as interested in Lisa and Kurt, and I found myself wanting to hurry on to find out what happened to Kate. I found this whole part of the novel a slow read.
But for that, I would've given this book 5 stars, because the denouement is just fantastic, and poignant. When I was done with the book, I was happy I had read it, and I was very satisfied with the story.
Recommended, and if you find yourself slowing down mid-book, hang in there. There's a big payoff at the end.
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