For our next debut author, allow me to introduce Emma Healey, author of Elizabeth is Missing.
Simultaneously a sophisticated mystery and a heartbreakingly honest meditation on memory and identity, Elizabeth is Missing possesses an unforgettable narrator in Maud, a grandmother fighting a losing battle against the devastating effects of memory loss.
But while she may be losing her grip on everyday life, much to the frustration of her family—particularly her daughter, Helen—she’s determined not to forget about her best friend Elizabeth, who has mysteriously vanished. To Maud’s frustration, no one will take her seriously: not Helen, not her carers, not the police, and especially not Elizabeth’s mercurial son, Peter. Armed only with the pocketfuls of reminder notes that she writes dozens of times a day, and a vague hunch that something is wrong, Maud resolves to discover the truth.
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, which was dominated by another unsolved disappearance; that of her sister, Sukey, who vanished just after World War II. Vivid memories of what happened over fifty years ago come flooding back to give her quest new momentum. Could the mystery of Sukey’s disappearance help Maud uncover the truth about Elizabeth?
Kimberly McCreight, author of Reconstructing Amelia, says this novel is "ingeniously structured and remarkably poignant…. A riveting story of friendship and loss that will have you compulsively puzzling fact from fiction as you race to the last page.”
– Annie