Many people collect something in their
free time. Stamps, coins, rocks, books... but it's a lot rarer you
hear about people collecting lost things, things they find somewhere.
Writer Anthony Peardew is such a person. Ripped off coat buttons,
umbrellas and a mysterious cookie tin filled with ashes, Anthony
keeps everything, puts a label on it stating when and where he found
it and tries to give it back to its original owner. He does all of
this to compensate for a lost locket he once got from his deceased
love Therese.
When Anthony dies he leaves his house
and his whole fortune to his assistent Laura – and with it the task
to bring back the lot things to their rightful owners. Laura doesn't
feel like she could handle that but she gets help from Freddy, the
garderer she's secretely in love with, and Sunshine, a girl with down
syndrome who lives in the neighbourhood that hardly ever leaves her
side.
Throwback to 1974: Young Eunice starts
working as an assistent to the attractive publisher Bomber. They
share a big passion for movies and an incredible love for dogs and
Eunice instantly falls in love with him. But she knows that they will
never be a couple and instead she stays at his side as a trustworthy
friend, both at the publishing company and in their private life
where she helps him facing his sister who is spoiled by a big
inheritance and doesn't understand why Bomber refuses to publish her
shamelessly plagiarized manuscripts.
In her first novel „The Keeper Of
Lost Things“, Ruth Hogan neatly puts those two plots together
without being too intrusive – the full extent of the link is only
revealed on the last pages. Both stories are full of British humour,
heartwarming moments and a little bit of mystic. Lauras story is also
bristles with short stories about the lost things in Anthonys
possesion – if they are from the writers imagination or the actual
backround stories is up to the reader. All that makes „The Keeper
Of Lost Things“ a light summer read without too much kitsch that
should delight fans of David Whitehouses „Mobile Library“.
