HOW DO YOU SOLVE A MYSTERY WHEN YOU CAN'T REMEMBER THE CLUES?
In this darkly riveting debut novel--a sophisticated psychological mystery that is also an heartbreakingly honest meditation on memory, identity, and aging--an elderly woman descending into dementia embarks on a desperate quest to find the best friend she believes has disappeared, and her search for the truth will go back decades and have shattering consequences.
Maud, an aging grandmother, is slowly losing her memory--and her grip on everyday life. Yet she refuses to forget her best friend Elizabeth, whom she is convinced is missing and in terrible danger.
But no one will listen to Maud--not her frustrated daughter, Helen, not her caretakers, not the police, and especially not Elizabeth's mercurial son, Peter. Armed with handwritten notes she leaves for herself and an overwhelming feeling that Elizabeth needs her help, Maud resolves to discover the truth and save her beloved friend.
This singular obsession forms a cornerstone of Maud's rapidly dissolving present. But the clues she discovers seem only to lead her deeper into her past, to another unsolved disappearance: her sister, Sukey, who vanished shortly after World War II.
As vivid memories of a tragedy that occurred more fifty years ago come flooding back, Maud discovers new momentum in her search for her friend. Could the mystery of Sukey's disappearance hold the key to finding Elizabeth?
About the Author :
Emma Healey grew up in London where she studied for her first degree in bookbinding. She then worked for two libraries, two bookshops, two art galleries and two universities, before completing an MA in Creative Writing at the University East Anglia. Her first novel, Elizabeth is Missing, was published to critical acclaim in 2014, became a Sunday Times (London) bestseller and won the Costa First Novel Award. She lives in Norwich, England with her husband and daughter.
Davina Porter has been enthralling listeners for over twenty-five years with her ability to mine the psychological depths of the characters she reads and bring them convincingly to life. In 2006, she won the prestigious Audie Award for Best Female Narration and in 2004 for Best Inspirational Literature Narration. She has been honored as an AudioFile Golden Voice and has won nineteen AudioFile Earphones Awards. As an actress, she has appeared on stage at the Vineyard Playhouse and the Square One Theater, among others.
Review :
"Elizabeth Is Missing is every bit as compelling as the frenzied hype suggests...Both a gripping detective yarn and a haunting depiction of mental illness, but also more poignant and blackly comic than you might expect."
-- "The Observer (London)"
"[A] knockout debut...Healey's audacious conception and formidable talent combine in a bravura performance that sustains its momentum and pathos to the last."
-- "Wall Street Journal"
"A compelling read, Elizabeth Is Missing offers added depth of mystery and suspense along with aptly portraying a family trying to cope with illness."
-- "New York Journal of Books"
"A thrillingly assured, haunting and unsettling novel, I read it at a gulp."
-- "Deborah Moggach, author of Heartbreak Hotel"
"British author Healey draws on her own grandmothers' experiences to create the distinctive narrator of her first novel...An absorbing tale."
-- "Publishers Weekly"
"Davina Porter narrates Emma Healey's compelling story of memory, identity, and loss. A story about someone who has to repeatedly ask the same questions may sound tedious, but both Healey and Porter are at the top of their game, and the result is a compelling audiobook. Porter modulates her voice to sound slightly younger or older depending on whether she's narrating a present-day portion of the story or scenes from Maud's past. It could have been difficult for the listener to differentiate between the time periods, but Porter's performance invokes just the right amount of subtlety to make it easy, thus making this an outstanding listen. Winner of AudioFile Earphones Award."
-- "AudioFile"
"Ingeniously structured and remarkably poignant, Elizabeth is Missing is a riveting story of friendship and loss that will have you compulsively puzzling fact from fiction as you race to the last page."
-- "Kimberly McCreight, New York Times bestselling author"
"It is a gripping thriller, but it's also about life and love, the love of an exasperated daughter for her mother, the love of sisters and of friends, and the love I felt for Maud."
-- "Independent (London)"
"Maud Horsham, the narrator of Emma Healey's spellbinding first novel, Elizabeth Is Missing, is aware that she's slipping into dementia...It's a sad and lonely business, watching your identity slowly slip away. But even at the end, Maud insists on making herself heard and understood."
-- "New York Times Book Review"
"Maud's memory is failing, slipping further away each day. So how can she convince anyone that her best friend is truly missing?...A poignant novel of loss."
-- "Kirkus Reviews"
"Part mystery, part meditation on memory...this is altogether brilliant."
-- "Booklist (starred review)"
"Suspenseful and emotional in equal parts, the author's debut hits all the right notes."
-- "Library Journal (starred review)"
"This is no conventional crime novel but a compelling work that crosses literary genres...The result is bold, touching, and hugely memorable."
-- "Sunday Times (London)"
"This novel genuinely is one of those semi-mythical beasts, the book you cannot put down."
-- "Jonathan Coe, author of The Rotter's Club"
"What's truly astonishing about the book is that its author...isn't even thirty years old. How can she know what it's like for a person to lose herself, bit by bit? How can her descriptions of World War II, with all the shabbiness and rationing and black-market intrigue, be so vivid? Of course, Healey is able to imagine and empathize on such a level because she's simply a brilliant writer. Let's hope we hear much more from her over the years."
-- "BookPage"
