Full of character, wit, and wisdom, The Keeper of Lost Things is heartwarming tale that will enchant fans of The Particular Sadness of Lemon Cake, Garden Spells, Mrs Queen Takes the Train, and The Silver Linings Playbook.Lime green plastic flower-shaped hair bobbles—Found, on the playing field, Derrywood Park, 2nd September.Bone china cup and saucer—Found, on a bench in Riveria Public Gardens, … September.
Bone china cup and saucer—Found, on a bench in Riveria Public Gardens, 31st October.
Anthony Peardew is the keeper of lost things. Forty years ago, he carelessly lost a keepsake from his beloved fiancée, Therese. That very same day, she died unexpectedly. Brokenhearted, Anthony sought consolation in rescuing lost objects—the things others have dropped, misplaced, or accidently left behind—and writing stories about them. Now, in the twilight of his life, Anthony worries that he has not fully discharged his duty to reconcile all the lost things with their owners. As the end nears, he bequeaths his secret life’s mission to his unsuspecting assistant, Laura, leaving her his house and and all its lost treasures, including an irritable ghost.
Recovering from a bad divorce, Laura, in some ways, is one of Anthony’s lost things. But when the lonely woman moves into his mansion, her life begins to change. She finds a new friend in the neighbor’s quirky daughter, Sunshine, and a welcome distraction in Freddy, the rugged gardener. As the dark cloud engulfing her lifts, Laura, accompanied by her new companions, sets out to realize Anthony’s last wish: reuniting his cherished lost objects with their owners.
Long ago, Eunice found a trinket on the London pavement and kept it through the years. Now, with her own end drawing near, she has lost something precious—a tragic twist of fate that forces her to break a promise she once made.
As the Keeper of Lost Objects, Laura holds the key to Anthony and Eunice’s redemption. But can she unlock the past and make the connections that will lay their spirits to rest?
A charming, clever, and quietly moving novel of of endless possibilities and joyful discoveries that explores the promises we make and break, losing and finding ourselves, the objects that hold magic and meaning for our lives, and the surprising connections that bind us.
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This story was recommended to me by a friend, and I liked it so much that we ended up featuring it on this week’s StoryBitesPodcast.com. Is it a romance? I would put it in the deeply-romantic-women’s-fiction bucket. But I’ll just say this: romance readers will enjoy it immensely. There’s a lot going on here–a couple of time periods, a couple of mysteries. I loved it all.
Anthony Peardew becomes “The Keeper of Lost Things,” after the tragic death of his fiancee Therese.
The author weaves Anthony and Therese’s story with that of Laura his assistant, her new friend Sunshine, Freddy the gardener, and those of a vast collection of “Lost Things.”
It is a charming, poignant and heartwarming read, filled with many comic moments.
Refined subtlety!
Yes, it is a ghost story, but ghosts don’t fly in your face, howling BOO. They just stay in the background and keep their invisible finger on the pulse of the story.
Yes, it is a love story, but with no saccharine stirred into it, or heavy sighing anywhere within an earshot. Love reveals itself steadily and inescapably.
In short, it is a beautifully crafted story which transcends genre. In fact, it is more than one story as three distinct sets of relationships (Eunice-Bomber, Andrew-Therese and Laura-Freddy) weave in and out of focus, and become entwined. The people populating this book are wonderful. They are the sort of people you would love to make friends with. Sunshine is a masterstroke of loving-tender characterisation. Wait till you meet her and you’ll know what I mean.
And finally, the lost things are characters too. Each of them tells its own amazing story: a blue button, a piece of a puzzle, a little red umbrella.
The Keeper of Lost Things is an original and humble book that can’t help but endear itself to the reader.
On a completely UN-spectacular day at the start of the book, three people wind up at the same street corner in London. Eunice is on her way to a job interview at a small publishing company. And a young engaged couple, Therese and Anthony, are planning to meet up for lunch. Fate intervenes. And, as a result, over the next forty years, many things need to be put right.
Anthony begins collecting all the lost items he stumbles across over the years, all carefully labeled and stored in his study, and creates and publishes delightful stories about each one. Eventually, he hires a faithful assistant, Laura, who quietly and with diligence becomes his essential helpmate.
Therese, known for her quick temper, uses steely determination to make sure she winds up with a happy ending.
Eunice’s life is forever changed by the friendship that develops with her new employer, Bomber. And the two of them share pastries, movies, and lots of laughs over the pathetic book-writing efforts of Bomber’s little sister Portia.
Fred, the good-looking I.T. entrepreneur-turned-gardner adds a bit of romance. Vince, the philandering ex, offers you someone to despise or pity. Sunshine, often overlooked as a young neighbor with a disability, turns out to have very special gifts in understanding “lost things.” And there are a couple of adopted rescue dogs who are as fully fleshed out in personality as each human character.
This is SUCH a fun read that my advice is to save this novel for a special vacation, a cold wintry weekend in front of a fire, or some other place where you have the time to relish every page. It would also be a wonderful book for reading aloud to the family.
This is the author’s debut novel but I’m hopeful there will be others.
An absolute delight
A whimsical, delightful interweaving of stories with an enchanting cast of characters. I loved them all, though it was Sunshine who stole my heart entirely. A beautifully written, magical book of tears, laughter, and the good and bad of human nature.
The terminology tends to be very English in nature but the stories are sensitive and thoughtful, weaving together very well as if the author is a puppeteer pulling the strings and making the marionette dance. It is a well-crafted set of stories that come together in the end.
I just reread this book, and it was just as delightful the second time around as it was the first. Again, I give it all the stars.
This book gets all the stars from me. It hooked me quite literally from page 1 (with that amazing phrase “the tinnitus of technology”) and I looked forward all day to the time when I could pick it back up and read more. I loved Eunice and Bomber and Anthony and Laura and Sunshine and Freddy. I loved the touches of magic, which will appeal to fans of Sarah Addison Allen. Loved her use of alliteration! And her English wit! (The humor reminded me a little of Abbi Waxman’s The Garden of Small Beginnings.) Utterly charming and original. Just such a perfect book for me.
Have you ever lost something, anything that was important to you, to your happiness, that connected you to an event or person? Then you need to read this story.
This book contains two storylines, past and present that come together to form a complete circle. It is a magical book, a book of hope, a book about love, about the every day people that touch our everyday lives and change us forever.
I loved this book. I am not a re-reader of books, but this book I want to read again to find the treasures I missed the first time.
I truly enjoyed this book. A delightfully different read. The author was able to take me on a journey through love, loss, finding, keeping, and losing all spanning several decades. The characters were wonderfully real and likeable and the story itself was almost magical at times. I’ve added this to my favorites list and that rarely ever happens. I’m sure this will be a re-read for me many times in the future.
A page-turner. I was hooked from the first page. Great characters. Wonderful storyline
I just finished listening to this book, and I couldn’t help but say, “Wow” when the story ended. The telling of the story slips seamlessly from character to character, and past to present, with reference to one of the “found” items as the connector.
I loved the characters, especially Sunshine, who has intuitive powers above a normal person, and the reader slowly begins to understand that she is different physically, too, but that revelation comes in small hints along the way. That’s the way most of the characters were revealed as the story progressed, with no big info-dump of backstory or personality traits. It was also a delight to see how the individual characters’ stories started to connect to each other.
I was so caught up in the magic of the writing and the characters whom I expected to see around my kitchen table when I looked up, I totally forgot that I really don’t like to read paranormal stories. I’m not afraid of ghosts, I just prefer to socialize with people who are still alive.
If you’re looking for a good book to add to your reading pleasure, I highly recommend this one.
This is a lovely feel good read and very original too.
Loved it! Great characters and very unusual story
This was just a lovely read, engrossing without being so action-packed that you find yourself kind of skimming just to find out what happens. Instead, it’s a good one to savor, with two intertwined stories (one set in the publishing world, always a favorite for me) that come to a satisfying conclusion together.
I truly loved this book. It was whimsical, sad, light hearted,. It makes you think and smile too. The author pulls all the strings of the story together . I smiled at the end. Not because it ended, but how she ended it.
Characters, about whom I quickly grew to care, only one vile woman in the lot, set about the task of freeing the curator of “Lost and Found Things” of his guilt. Sunshine’s sixth sense provides feelings and details of each lost item which in combination with stories written by the “Finder” enable the team to return items to former owners. Three couples’ lives were closely woven in this jigsaw story enlivened by the Golden thread of Sunshine’s character, a young woman with Downes syndrome, whose sensitivity, wisdom and friendship are critical is setting all things right.
Scribd allowed listening along with the text in view; both formats were available, lovely.
It was a charming story that I really enjoyed. Some sweet people still inhabit this earth.
This was a surprisingly heart-warming story. I didn’t expect to cry while reading this, but I did. It’s also surprising and original.
Delightful!
There is no other way to describe this book other than a most delightful read.
It had charm, whimsy, love, sadness and smiles all throughout.
Such a wonderful concept to be the keeper of lost things and all that goes with it.
I will no doubt think about this book for a long time to come.
Thank you to Netgalley, William Morrow Books and the Author, Ruth Hogan for a copy of this book.