LoveReading Says
Lost & Found is a memoir by Kathryn Schulz and a rich exploration of what it is to live in a complex world where we both delight in the joy of ‘finding’ while simultaneously dealing with the despair of loss. On the Loss side of the equation Schulz delves into everything from the frustration of losing everyday objects to the devastation of grief, and on the Found side she reflects on love and marriage and moments where ‘things’ are either recovered having vanished or are discovered anew.
In the space of eighteen months two life-changing things happen in her world. First she meets the woman she will later marry, and then she loses her father - a man so remarkable and rich in character I would happily read a book just about him. In the way that life completes such circles, Schulz has fallen in love with her partner having recognised within her something of her father, and then her partner is there to support her through her grief.
The stories flow easily between the broad and the narrow - the unimaginable loss her grandparents felt through exile during the war, to finding a pair of sunglasses lost to the ocean, to laying hands on a freshly landed meteorite, and to the author’s home town baseball team losing the world series.
In addition to being a thought-provoking memoir this is also a guide book on how to move on when anything is lost and how to fully appreciate gifts when they come to you. The writing is beautiful and the philosophy insightful. In itself the book is a journey of discovering new ideas even as page after page it turns towards its inevitable end.
I have been given books to read about grief before but they are never like this. Lost & Found goes deeper but also offers a much wider perspective and reveals a world held together by these moments that seem to tear it apart.
Reviewed by Greg HackettAn avid crime and thriller reader when younger Greg is now more interested in non-fiction and in particular books which explain the natural world and our relationship with it.
More reviews by Greg Hackett About Lost & Found
NATIONAL BESTSELLER NEW YORK TIMES EDITORS' CHOICE A "profound and beautiful" (Marilynne Robinson) account of joy and sorrow from one of the great writers of our time, The New Yorker's Kathryn Schulz, winner of the Pulitzer Prize
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Lost & Found Synopsis
NATIONAL BESTSELLER NEW YORK TIMES EDITORS' CHOICE A "profound and beautiful" (Marilynne Robinson) account of joy and sorrow from one of the great writers of our time, The New Yorker's Kathryn Schulz, winner of the Pulitzer Prize
"I will stake my reputation on you being blown away by Lost & Found."-Anne Lamott, author of Dusk, Night, Dawn and Bird by Bird
WINNER OF THE LAMBDA LITERARY AWARD LONGLISTED FOR THE NATIONAL BOOK AWARD FINALIST FOR THE NATIONAL JEWISH BOOK AWARD LONGLISTED FOR THE ANDREW CARNEGIE MEDAL AN OPRAH DAILY BEST NONFICTION BOOK OF THE PAST TWO DECADES
ONE OF THE TEN BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR: People
ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR: Time, NPR, Oprah Daily, The Washington Post, The Boston Globe, Esquire, Vulture, She Reads, Book Riot, Publishers Weekly
One spring morning, Kathryn Schulz went to lunch with a stranger and fell in love. Having spent years looking for the right relationship, she was dazzled by how swiftly everything changed when she finally met her future wife. But as the two of them began building a life together, Schulz's beloved father-a charming, brilliant, absentminded Jewish refugee-went into the hospital with a minor heart condition and never came out.
Newly in love yet also newly bereft, Schulz was left contending simultaneously with wild joy and terrible grief.
Those twin experiences form the heart of Lost & Found, a profound meditation on the families that make us and the families we make. But Schulz's book also explores how disappearance and discovery shape us all. On average, we each lose two hundred thousand objects over our lifetime, and Schulz brilliantly illuminates the relationship between those everyday losses and our most devastating ones.
Likewise, she explores the importance of seeking, whether for ancient ruins or new ideas, friends, faith, meaning, or love. The resulting book is part memoir, part guidebook to sustaining wonder and gratitude even in the face of loss and grief. A staff writer at The New Yorker and winner of the Pulitzer Prize, Schulz writes with curiosity, tenderness, and humor about the connections between joy and sorrow-and between us all.
About This Edition
| ISBN: |
9780525512486 |
| Publication date: |
22nd November 2022 |
| Author: |
Kathryn Schulz |
| Publisher: |
Random House Trade Paperbacks an imprint of Random House Publishing Group |
| Format: |
Paperback |
| Pagination: |
272 pages |
| Primary Genre |
Biographies & Autobiographies
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| Other Genres: |
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| Recommendations: |
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Kathryn Schulz Press Reviews
Extraordinary . . . A profound and beautiful book . . . a moving meditation on grief and loss, but also a sparky celebration of joy, wonder and the miracle of love . . . Witty, wise, beautifully structured and written in clear, singing prose - Sunday Times
Luminescent . . . Deft, roving and elegantly written . . . Lost & Found is itself a marvel of a meditation. It left me moved, inspired and ultimately elated - Financial Times
Eloquent and tender . . . a breathtakingly beautiful set-piece, a celebration of the ordinariness and sublimity of our most fundamental connections: to parents, to children, to lovers. - Observer
An extraordinary gift of a book, a tender, searching meditation on love and loss and what it means to be human. I emerged feeling a little as if the world around me had been made anew. -- Helen Macdonald, author of H is for Hawk
A deeply moving, richly illuminating exploration of loss and bliss. Schulz is never anything but the very best company, speaking nuanced truths from and about the deepest reaches of the heart. -- Leslie Jamison, author of The Empathy Exams
In Lost & Found, she moves between the philosophical and the intimate, turning a memoir of love and death into an exploration of the way chance becomes fate and grief intertwines with gratitude. -- Jia Tolentino, author of Trick Mirror
An unfolding astonishment to read -- Alison Bechdel, author of Fun Home
In this profound mediation on loss and revelation, on how we relinquish those we love and learn to love others, Kathryn Schulz has created a masterpiece of metaphysical insight, at once richly lyrical and piercingly specific. -- Andrew Solomon, author of The Noonday Demon
Lost and Found is the most daring of books: a memoir by a happy person. Deeply felt and exquisitely written, it's an absorbing exploration of love and loss -- not to mention meteorites, Dante and bears. The prodigiously talented Kathryn Schulz has written about her life in a way that will change yours. -- Andy Borowitz, author of The Borowitz Report
Our lives do indeed deserve and reward the kind of honest, gentle, brilliant scrutiny [Schulz] brings to bear on her own life. The book is profound and beautiful. -- Marilynne Robinson, author of Housekeeping and Gilead
Pulitzer Prize-winner Kathryn Shulz's grief memoir offers clarity and wisdom on how loss and discovery are never far apart from one another. - Esquire
