LoveReading Says
Runner-up for the Betty Trask Award 2015.
One of the Top 10 Lovereading Reader Review Panel Summer Read selections.
Eighty-something Maud is getting forgetful and so writes notes to herself. ‘Elizabeth is missing’ is one such note which Maud then becomes obsessed with for Elizabeth is indeed missing. She tells her daughter, the police, anyone who will listen. Maud is suffering from dementia which gets gradually worse throughout the book. Her daughter has to eventually take her in … and still, for Maud at least, Elizabeth is missing. For us, the reader too, only we do discover why. Slowly we get Maud’s back story and a strange mystery about her sister and her very dodgy husband. All becomes clear in a startling conclusion. The stages of dementia are thoroughly explored in a thoughtful, impressive manner. A fascinating debut. ~ Sarah Broadhurst
Shortlisted for the Desmond Elliott Prize 2015.
Longlisted for the Baileys Women's Prize for Fiction 2015.
Winner of the Costa First Novel Award 2014.
The Costa Judges said Healey's book was “Utterly captivating and original.”
One of our Books of the Year 2014.
One of the Top 10 books in the Lovereading Readers’ Choice Book of the Year 2014.
Sarah Broadhurst
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Elizabeth Is Missing Synopsis
WINNER 2014 Costa Book AwardsFirst NovelAn internationally heralded debut novel of extraordinary warmth, insight and humanity that will appeal to readers who loved The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry and Still Alice: Elizabeth Is Missing is at once a page-turning mystery that takes us from post-war Britain to the present day and a piercingly honest portrait of love and memory, families and aging through the lens of an unforgettable protagonist who will seize your heart--an elderly woman descending into forgetfulness, as she embarks alone on a quest to find the best friend she believes has disappeared. Maud, an aging grandmother, is slowly losing her memory--and her grip on everyday life. Notes fill her pockets and dot the walls of her home, increasingly crucial reminders of the immediate world. Most crucial is the fact that she can't find her only friend--Elizabeth has disappeared: she isn't answering the phone and doesn't seem to be at her house. Maud, convinced Elizabeth is in terrible danger, refuses to forget her even if her frustrated daughter, Helen, her carer, Carla, and the police won't listen and won't help. Armed with an overwhelming feeling that Elizabeth desperately needs her help, Maud sets out to find her. And, unexpectedly, her search triggers an old and powerful memory of another unsolved disappearance--that of her sister, Sukey, who vanished more than 50 years ago, shortly after the Second World War. As long-ago memories emerge, Maud begins to uncover forgotten clues to her sister's disappearance and to piece together the mystery that has haunted her family for decades, discovering new momentum in her search for her friend. Could the mystery of Sukey's disappearance hold the key to finding Elizabeth?From the Hardcover edition.
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