Of Things Gone Astray, Janina Matthewson

Author: Janina Matthewson
Publisher: The Friday Project
Pages: 288
Format: eArc
ISBN-10: 0007562470
ISBN-13: 9780007562473
The Friday Project: eBook | Hardcover | Paperback

People lose things all the time. Keys, money, small stuff. What will you do when you lose something big. Like a wall in your house, the love of your life, your sense of direction, your mother?
The book tells the story of 7 people who have lost something that really mattered. Showing how vulnerable they are without that one specific thing.

This was interesting. I picked up this book and saw it had a lot of chapters told by various characters giving me an 'A Game of Thrones' scare. I am awful with keeping track when stories of different characters are getting mixed. A bit reluctant I started reading.
The chapters are short and the names of the characters all differ enough from each other to keep them to their own part of the story. At some point a few of the characters get involved in the stories of others and that was so obvious it did not confuse my brain.
What is the most interesting in this story is the things the people lose. The front wall of your house is not something that you easily misplace. It made me grin until the lady of the house started to explain how vulnerable she felt now everyone seemed to feel free to approach her. All of the things lost made the people in the book vulnerable and slowly this feeling got a grip on me.
Though all stories have something heartbreaking in them the story of Jake and his father was just the worst. I do not easily cry over books but this part of the story brought me really close.

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Celine

AUTHOR

06 February, 2015 delete

I loved this book so much. And I agree, Jake's story was heartbreaking

DoingDewey

24 February, 2015 delete

I thought Jake's story was incredibly sad too! I was also near tears at times. I loved that the chapters were so short because it made flipping back and forth if I needed to remember who a character was much easier. The things people lost were very funny and I enjoyed how quirky this book felt, but you're right that their losses were also very moving.