Loved and Missed

Description

'I was in the story, feeling everything. I cared about every character . . . She writes beautifully. It was a total pleasure' Philippa Perry, author of The Book You Wish Your Parents Had Read Susie Boyt writes with a mordant wit and vivid style which are at their best in Loved and Missed. When your beloved daughter is lost in the fog of addiction and you make off with her baby in order to save the day, can willpower and a daring creative zeal carry you through ? Examining the limits, disappointments and excesses of love in all its forms, this marvellously absorbing novel, full of insight and compassion, delights as much as it disturbs. 'She takes the study of love into uncharted territory and every sentence has its depth and pleasure' Linda Grant 'I am so moved: it carries a huge emotional power... I ache for them all. Poignant, witty, lyrical and perceptive' Joan Bakewell

Susie Boyt is the author of five other acclaimed novels and the much-loved memoir My Judy Garland Life which was shortlisted for the PEN Ackerley Prize, staged at the Nottingham Playhouse and serialised on BBC Radio 4. She has written about art, life and fashion for the Financial Times for the past fourteen years and has recently edited The Turn of the Screw and Other Ghost Stories by Henry James. She is also a director at the Hampstead Theatre. She lives in London with her family.

I was in the story, feeling everything. I cared about every character . . . She writes beautifully. It was a total pleasure -- Philippa Perry, author of The Book You Wish Your Parents Had Read Always surprising - unexpected, particular, the thing you didn't know you wanted, but needed more than anything. A tender study of unrequited maternal love redeemed ultimately by the quiet glory of not giving up -- Tamsin Greig She takes the study of love into uncharted territory and every sentence has its depths and pleasures -- Linda Grant Her writing has a Keatsian belief in the holiness of the Heart's affections . . . a beautiful work of art, a page-turning narrative with wise and funny observations and dialogue . . . both heart-breaking and consoling -- Shena Mackay I am so moved: it carries a huge emotional power . . . I ached for them all. Poignant, witty, lyrical and perceptive -- Joan Bakewell A novel of profound courage and consideration; every page a kaleidoscope of thoughtful insight into human frailty and complexity . . . one of the greatest visceral studies of love I have ever experienced -- Lisa Dwan This beautiful tale of love, courage and compassion...captures the pain of estrangement in penetrating, haunting language... Loved and Missed is a complex, deeply moving novel about frailty and suffering. Despite all the sadness, hope remains -- Martin Chilton * Independent * It's an arresting premise for Susie Boyt's thoughtprovoking seventh novel...Boyt's novel is compelling - and invites our compassion for those who may not always earn it, but still deserve it. -- Marianka Swain * The Sunday Telegraph, Novel of the Week * Boyt is both funny...and poignant...but never less than impeccably truthful, with a broad, oft breathtaking wisdom -- Emily Hourican * Irish Independent * Loved and Missed deftly sidesteps the cliches that often plague stories involving drug abuse, and it conveys the complexities of loving someone who can't love you back with remarkable delicacy. -- Mia Levitin * Financial Times * An acute, enormously moving study of familial love, and how the bonds between a mother and child can rupture, sometimes inexplicably. -- Fiona Sturges * i * Boyt's novel is compelling-and invites our compassion for those who may not always earn it, but still deserve it -- Marianka Swain * Daily Telegraph * To wrest exquisite prose and engaging narrative out of a tale of pain and sorrow is the achievement of a serious novelist who has blossomed into originality and who deserves a wide audience * Spectator * Boyt's writing is perceptive and emotionally powerful * MSN * I adored Susie Boyt's novel Loved And Missed, which explores what can happen when, out of the blue, addiction and dereliction arrive to wreck a family. And how goodwill, determination and encouragement can ultimately put things back together again. -- Rev Richard Coles * Daily Mail *