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The Lost Child
The Lost Child
Nov 11, 2025 6:29 AM

Author:Caryl Phillips

The Lost Child

Discover this heartrending story of orphans, outcasts and the grip of the past from award-winning novelist Caryl Phillips – inspired by Wuthering Heights.

It is the 1960s. Isolated from her parents after falling in love with a foreigner, Monica Johnson raises her sons in the shadow of the wild Yorkshire moors. But when her younger son Tommy, a loner who is bullied at school, disappears, the family bond is demolished – with devastating consequences.

Deftly intertwined with this modern narrative is the story of the ragged childhood of Emily Brontë’s Heathcliff, one of literature’s most enigmatic lost boys. Recovering the mysteries of the past to illuminate the predicaments of the present, The Lost Child is an exquisite novel about exile, freedom and what it is to belong.

‘Heartbreaking…compelling’ Independent

Reviews

Heartbreaking... Compelling

—— Independent

The prose is as sleek as you would expect from a writer as accomplished as Phillips

—— Guardian

Phillips has found a way to enlist the strange energy of Emily Brontë’s work and redirect it to powerful and surprising effect

—— Times Literary Supplement

Expertly written and artfully crafted

—— Daily Mail

Is there any sign of a falling-off in Sir Terry's extraordinary abilities? No. Not one. This is another brilliant, bravura command performance of comic fantasy. Terry Pratchett with Alzheimer's is still up there with PG Wodehouse. Amazing. Wonderful. Fantastic

—— Harry Ritchie , Daily Mail

The Discworld novels have always been among the most serious of comedies, the most relevant and real of fantasies... Pratchett has been rightly praised for comic invention and whimsy; he does not always get enough credit for the psychological comedy of embarrassment which makes us blush with self-recognition... at once hilariously cynical and idealistically practical

—— Independent

Terry Pratchett's Discworld remains a joy... [Snuff is] seriously funny... A highly readable, mature comedy, far from the rapid-fire quipping of early Discworld

—— Independent

A mystical adventure in an enchanted universe

—— Time

A lovely, lush voyage through vividly detailed worlds… an amazing literary adventure

—— Psychologies, *Book of the Month*

Erin Morgenstern’s done it again: she creates a magnificent, imaginative world around a story of love and magic. This love letter to bibliophiles is dreamlike and uncanny, grounded in deeply felt emotion, and absolutely thrilling.

—— Publishers Weekly

A magnificent quest, a sense of unfolding adventure and danger, gold-wrought fantasy, and endless provocation on what storytelling really means.

—— *Library Journal

A puzzlebox of a book, full of meta-narratives and small folkloric tales that will delight readers. [Morgenstern] trusts her readers to follow along and speculate, wonder, and make leaps themselves as she dives into tales of pirates, book burnings, and men lost in time, giving the book a mythic quality that will stick with readers long after they put it down.

—— *Booklist

A high-wire feat of metatextual derring-do, Morgenstern weaves Zachary's adventure into a stunning array of linked fables, myths, and origin stories... exquisitely pleasurable.. a love letter to readers as much as an invitation: Come and see how much magic is left in the world. Fans of Neil Gaiman and V.E. Schwab, Kelly Link and Susanna Clarke will want to heed the call. An ambitious and bewitching gem of a book with mystery and passion inscribed on every page.

—— STARRED Kirkus Review

A timeless love story

—— That's Life Monthly

Undeniably imaginative

—— i

The Starless Sea effortlessly constructs a fantasy that feels real, building a world filled with characters that you’ll know and care about… an enchanting, satisfying finish

—— Rhian Drinkwater , SFX

Highly imaginative

—— Bookmunch

Beautifully written… [The Starless Sea] is mesmerising

—— Good Housekeeping

The Starless Sea is quintessential Erin Morgenstern: breathtakingly beautiful, powerfully emotive, and a fantastic read. A booklover fantasy, Morgenstern’s follow up to the Night Circus does not disappoint. Set aside an entire day for this one, because you’ll pick it up and become very reluctant to put it back down

—— Lauren Banks , SCAN

Deserves the same recognition that greeted Max Porter's similarly constructed fictionalised memoir Grief is the Thing With Feathers... uses its broken-up style to explore experiences that defy easy comprehension. There is nothing indulgent about this quietly observed account of a black man Owusu gives the name of K... There is a physicality to his writing, the impression of incoherent feelings being wrestled into shape, that lends his book heft. K's future is, in the end, ambiguous, but Owusu's surely gleams bright.

—— Claire Allfree , Metro

A bold prose poem written in novella form, That Reminds Me is one of the most powerful pieces of writing to be published in 2019.

—— Foyles

The latest release from Stormzy's increasingly impressive #Merky imprint, this is a stylistically ambitious memoir of a precarious Tottenham upbringing. Owusu writes with a poet's gift for seemingly incidental observation in a potent story that's left deliberately, troublingly fragmented.

—— Metro

A virtuosic debut by a raw new talent. An honest and timely evaluation of a black man's struggle to belong and later come to terms with failing mental health. Utterly convincing and deeply sad, Owusu's storytelling will bring readers to tears.

—— Scarlett Sangster , The Irish News

Derek Owusu is not just a brilliant writer, he’s a deep thinker. Anything he does is relevant, and meaningful. It would be easy to say that he is mainly concerned with the condition of young black men, but in truth he speaks truth to all of us.

—— Benjamin Zephaniah

A magnificent achievement.

—— Paul Gilroy

Written with candour and verve, and full of moments of heart-stopping anguish and beauty.

—— Stephen Kelman
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