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Book of the month

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And our MARCH Book of the Month is... WHAT WAS LOST by Catherine O'Flynn (discussion 31 March 8pm-10pm)

82 replies

HelenMumsnet · 21/02/2009 14:33

In a nail-biting finish, What Was Lost beat This Book Will Save Your Life by just one vote!

We'll be chatting about What Was Lost on Tuesday 31 March from 8pm to 10pm. Hope you can join us!

Don't forget you can order your copy here

And, for anyone who missed out on the vote here were March's book choices and this is how Book Club works.

OP posts:
simnel303 · 31/03/2009 20:59

I think Adrian wanted back into his family and old town/life but he thought he'd never be able to clear his name. I'm not sure where he's been in the interval between Kate's disappearance but it cant have been much of a life. I wonder what would have happened to him if his dad had spoken to him in the shop. That scene reminded me of how often in life there are moments when we do or dont do something that has lasting repercussions.

MNHQ
HelenMumsnet · 31/03/2009 21:01

lol Tilly.

What would happen to Gavin, then?

OP posts:
DutchOma · 31/03/2009 21:03

My ending would be that she felt she couldn't go home to her Granny, but went with Adrian to live in Brighton under an assumed name, posing as his sister. Adrian earns a living for the two of them until Kate is old enough to go to work as a waitress.
They have a baby and post on MN every day and lives happily ever after.
Not much of a story, certainly not a spine chilling ghost story.

simnel303 · 31/03/2009 21:06

dutchoma I love that ending, I demand a rewrite, we need her Brighton diaries!

DutchOma · 31/03/2009 21:07

Her MN username could be MeanKatie

whistlejacket · 31/03/2009 21:08

My ending: Adrian sits the exam and goes to Redspoon disguised as a girl, no one discovers who he is until Kate is found working in Clare's Accessories. Lisa burns down the record shop (at night, no one hurt) and elopes with Kurt to a chilled out island off Thailand.

spiderinthebath · 31/03/2009 21:11

Lisa and Kurt give me goosebumps in a bad way...

TillyBookClub · 31/03/2009 21:12

Any more questions for Catherine, by the way? I'm going to email them to her tomorrow and then post up the whole Q&A as soon as she emails her answers back...

My question would be: do you believe shopping centres are truly awful or are you actually quite nostalgic for/attached to them?

(cf. Adrian's comment that the countryside is dreadful and boring as there are no shops, 'just Spars that look like shops but don't sell anything except maybe some swede and a packet of custard creams'.)

simnel303 · 31/03/2009 21:13

Gavin works his way up from security guard to Green Oaks CEO and makes all staff tour the service corridors at the Christmas do singing the Green Oaks appreciation song.

whistlejacket · 31/03/2009 21:15

Qu for Catherine: what gave her the inspiration for Kate's detective agency? Was it something she did as a child and did she actually come across a book like the one Kate's dad gave her?

simnel303 · 31/03/2009 21:21

Green Oaks actually reminded me of the Arndale Centre in Manchester where I spent many a bored hour as a student - I was inexplicably drawn there although I had no money to spend - maybe because there were other people to watch ,nothing else to do and it was raining outside. Did give me the creeps though.

missclovis · 31/03/2009 21:26

Please can we ask Catherine:
Was Teresa's stepdad's liking for the hot lemon tea drink Lift and Gavin's drinking of 7Up heated up in a microwave with a tea bag dipped in it, a clue/red herring/coincidence? I need to know.

TillyBookClub · 31/03/2009 21:29

I remember first going to a shopping centre in Peterborough, aged 13 and it was like I'd entered nirvana. This book brought it all back, especially when she mentions Dolcis.

Also remember being a detective and lugging around a vast faux-leather executive briefcase with combination locks, inside which were numerous files on my sisters activities. Wish I had kept it.

I think that's partly what I loved about this book - a huge sense of recognition, whilst also being intrigued and not having a clue how it would all end.

simnel303 · 31/03/2009 21:32

I was also a detective when I was about 10, hiding in the bushes of my parents house writing notes on the comings and goings, I even had a broken camera in my satchel. Perhaps Catherine did this too?

missclovis · 31/03/2009 21:39

I was one too. We had a secret club. I can remember being in a group of giggling 10-year-old girls following innocent members of the public who, we had decided, looked "suspicious". Also, deciding that an empty house across the field from school was haunted and spending all play time starring at it.Then everyone planning to climb out of their bedroom windows at night to go an investigate -- except nobody turned up.

whistlejacket · 31/03/2009 21:40

Can't say I was a detective but I did have an obsession with neighbours' car registrations and used to write them down and then look out for them when out and about. Not sure why!

TillyBookClub · 31/03/2009 21:43

I've got to go and attend to a sobbing babe upstairs, but anyone else with a question for the author do post here and I'll compile them all tomorrow.

Thanks everyone - I was so pleased to have discovered this book.

Looking forward to April's chat already - Middlesex is an incredible read. See you on April 28.

EachPeachPearMum · 31/03/2009 21:50

Oh! Can't believe I missed this... DS has been fussy all evening

I was saddened by the ending- it seemed like such an odd set-up.... what would he have done if she hadn't taken his bait and fallen down the hole? How would he have entombed her then?

JudithChalmers · 31/03/2009 21:51

my dh used to pronounce it "Dolchis" as if it were Italiano.
nob!

simnel303 · 31/03/2009 21:52

yes, the end wasn't quite right was it. Perhaps Catherine could tell us what alternative endings she had considered before deciding on the one in the book?

simnel303 · 31/03/2009 21:53

la dolchis feeta!

JudithChalmers · 31/03/2009 21:55

I cant remember now what the end was tbh.
I could onyl think of merry hill

RosemaryBingle · 31/03/2009 22:18

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

stanausauruswrecks · 31/03/2009 22:34

I meant to join in too - a message for Catherine - Toby S says hello from the High St days.(It's his missus BTW) Read the book last year and loved it, as did T - in fact it's the only book I've known him finish in 9 years!

UnquietDad · 31/03/2009 23:43

Missed the chat, but I did want to say how much I really enjoyed this book. I read it last year. Very well done - one of the best first novels I have read in the last decade. Looking forward to Catherine's second.

I wonder if she is really annoyed that her original publishers gave her such an AWFUL cover? here

This one - not sure if it's a reprint or an overseas edition - is much better here. Spooky hints of blurry figures on CCTV in a book about a lost child - I think we all know what that evokes...