LoveReading Says
LoveReading Says
Suspenseful, incisively observed, and sizzling with long held secrets, Lucy Ayrton’s Things We Lose in Waves brilliantly evokes the dislocation that comes of leaving your hometown, and the strange unease of fleeting returns.
In this case, though, Jenny, a young lawyer, is compelled to return for longer. Her father, owner of the village’s sole pub, dies just as COVID takes hold in Britain. Rather than return to furlough life in Hackney, she decides to stay in “weird, brash, windswept” Ravenspurn, a northern village that’s in the process of being lost to the sea as the coast is eroded. Not happy about the prospect of spending “three whole weeks with just her mum, the seagulls and the sea” (of course, lockdown continues for much longer), Jenny feels ill at ease in her childhood home, with its “mainly closed-up shops, like knocked-out teeth in the smile of the street.”
There are palpable strains between mother and daughter, and barbed animosity between Jenny and Alex, her friend from childhood. A second timeline shifts to 2004, when Jenny and Alex both planned to leave Ravenspurn for university.
At one point, Alex remarks, “They get into your skin, don’t they? The people you grow up with,” and Things We Lose in Waves reveals that with potency. Also tingling with the tension of complex family dynamics and friendship, and the swell of secrets, this is a richly resonant novel of our time.
Joanne Owen
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Things We Lose in Waves Synopsis
Jenny's world is falling apart.
Ravenspurn is falling into the sea. The little town is perched on a remote cliff, and every day, frequent storms are claiming more land, more homes and more livelihoods.
The news of her father's sudden death forces Jenny's return to her hometown from London, but the ravaged landscape now feels like a foreign place. In a small town like Ravenspurn, the rifts between her and those she once knew are so deep they threaten to swallow her whole.
Jenny is now responsible for her late father's small pub, and its staff, Alex and Si - her former best friend and ex-boyfriend, now a couple. She's stuck living in her childhood bedroom, orbiting awkwardly around her distant mother. Her boyfriend is still in London, separated by more than just distance. Each day that Jenny remains, the town seems to shrink around her, but she knows soon the pandemic will be over. Soon, she'll be able to return to her real life.
But the secrets and the unspoken regrets that have come to haunt Jenny are not so easily escaped. In the claustrophobia of Ravenspurn, where can she turn?
A timely story of a home pushed to the breaking point; Things We Lose in Waves explores how you keep afloat when your world is falling away from underneath your feet.
About This Edition
| ISBN: |
9780349701875 |
| Publication date: |
2nd November 2023 |
| Author: |
Lucy Ayrton |
| Publisher: |
Renegade Books an imprint of Dialogue |
| Format: |
Hardback |
| Pagination: |
416 pages |
| Primary Genre |
Family Drama
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| Other Genres: |
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Press Reviews
Lucy Ayrton Press Reviews
A small town, where everyone has their secrets - I felt as though I was walking the streets of Ravenspurn as I read. Filled with complex characters and exquisite writing, this is a wonderful book. - Louise Hare, author of Miss Aldridge Regrets
A vivid and affecting journey into the heart of Jenny, the main character, but also the heart of a community, and the heart of a family. A moving exploration of self, family, and what it means to be truly "home," this novel will grab your heart and never let go. - Suzette Mayr, author of The Sleeping Car Porter
As a town's foundation erodes, so does Jenny, wounded by past and present alike. Emotionally rich and artfully restrained, this is a beautiful, atmospheric work. - Elizabeth McKenzie, author of The Portable Veblen and The Dog of the North
An elegant, assured novel about family, friendships, secrets and the push-pull of home. Things We Lose in Waves paints a picture of England today through the real Yorkshire coastal village of Ravenspurn, as it crumbles into the sea during lockdown, and its close-knit community that is weary of both outsiders and its own. A poignant story of the earth opening up under your feet and what is revealed as things fall apart. - Priscilla Morris, author of Black Butterflies
