New York Times Best SellerNamed a Best Book of 2019 by Vogue and NPR’s Maureen Corrigan“Freudenberger’s brilliant and compassionate novel takes on the big questions of the universe and proves, again, that she is one of America’s greatest writers.” –Andrew Sean Greer, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of LessAn emotionally engaging, suspenseful new novel from the best-selling author, told in the … suspenseful new novel from the best-selling author, told in the voice of a renowned physicist: an exploration of female friendship, romantic love, and parenthood–bonds that show their power in surprising ways.
Helen Clapp’s breakthrough work on five-dimensional spacetime landed her a tenured professorship at MIT; her popular books explain physics in plain terms. Helen disdains notions of the supernatural in favor of rational thought and proven ideas. So it’s perhaps especially vexing for her when, on an otherwise unremarkable Wednesday in June, she gets a phone call from a friend who has just died.
That friend was Charlotte Boyce, Helen’s roommate at Harvard. The two women had once confided in each other about everything–in college, the unwanted advances Charlie received from a star literature professor; after graduation, Helen’s struggles as a young woman in science, Charlie’s as a black screenwriter in Hollywood, their shared challenges as parents. But as the years passed, Charlie became more elusive, and her calls came less and less often. And now she’s permanently, tragically gone.
As Helen is drawn back into Charlie’s orbit, and also into the web of feelings she once had for Neel Jonnal–a former college classmate now an acclaimed physicist on the verge of a Nobel Prize-winning discovery–she is forced to question the laws of the universe that had always steadied her mind and heart.
Suspenseful, perceptive, deeply affecting, Lost and Wanted is a story of friends and lovers, lost and found, at the most defining moments of their lives.
more
Like the finely calibrated tools of particle physics described in its pages, Nell Freudenberger’s novel demonstrates an astonishing sensitivity to the forces that move us all. Her rendering of grief — with its shadings of denial, anger, longing, dark humor, and magic — is nothing short of perfection.
I would have liked to have given this book 5 stars, but I felt unsatisfied with the ending. It was well written and made sense, but I didn’t get the emotional fulfillment I hoped for. Which also made sense, because, in a way, that was the point of the book. It should also be noted there is a lot of technical scientific information in the story which may scare off some readers, but again, it belongs. This is not a quick throwaway read but for someone who wants a deep, thought-provoking story, this may be the perfect book.
Gorgeous, brainy, and passionate. Lost and Wanted is the best kind of big American novel: a majestic book that takes on nothing less than the nature of the universe — literally — while probing that similarly infinite mystery known as the human heart. Nell Freudenberger’s writing is fearless and profound, as it absolutely must be in order to pull off this very modern ghost story that unfolds in the life of an MIT physicist. Freudenberger is one of our best novelists, and she’s delivered a real powerhouse of a novel.
Intellectually dazzling and almost unbearably moving. Probing the mysteries of the physical universe and the equally mysterious nature of human connection, Freudenberger writes fearlessly and lyrically about physics and grief; parenthood and friendship; the subtleties of race and the seriousness of female ambition. I’ve read many novels that made me think and some that made me cry, but few that did both as powerfully as this one did.
A clever, engaging story about friendship, love, and physics. An unexpected, delightful page-turner.
A beautifully written thought provoking work which shares with us the friendship between a scientist and an artist Three very important issues are addressed by the author How is it that assisted suicide in terminal illness is legal in some states but not others What signs of our presence remain after we have died and How well can we really understand another person
Very original premise. I can’t imagine the amount of research that must have been involved to make quantum mechanics understandable to the casual reader. It was a good read, but I thought the ending could have been a little more dramatic.
Lost and Wanted explores themes such as grief, friendship, regret, family and science. The characters were well-written and realistic. I enjoyed the physics aspect of the book, though it was a bit difficult to understand at times.
Lost and Wanted is a new kind of mystery novel, written with an artist’s rigor and a scientist’s intuition. Nell Freudenberger shines her light into the farthest reaches of the universe, and also into the whirring spaces between parents and children, lost loves, and best friends. A beautiful book.
pretty worthless time spent reading this book
This tender, engaging story takes a physicist for its heroine, and boldly bends the forces of the universe to the binding love between friends, between partners, between parents and their children. It’s not sci-fi, but something we might call fi-sci — a literary and emotional adventure peopled by complex, sympathetic characters, some of whom happen to do science as they navigate their most important relationships.
Before the full scope of the accomplishment has sunk in — the lucid, compassionate portraits of a wide array of characters, the meticulous hand with which Freudenberger paints their world — you’ll be beguiled, as I was, by Helen’s narration, so full of humble longing and deep, sweet ruefulness.
This is an intellectually challenging novel by a brilliant writer. My full review is published on the New York Journal of Books, here:
https://www.nyjournalofbooks.com/book-review/lost-and-wanted-novel