Book cover of Lost & Found: Reflections on Grief, Gratitude, and Happiness

Book description

'Extraordinary . . . a profound and beautiful book . . . a moving meditation on grief and loss, but also a sparky celebration of joy, wonder and the miracle of love . . . Witty, wise, beautifully structured and written in clear, singing prose' - Sunday Times

Longlisted for…

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Why read it?

3 authors picked Lost & Found as one of their favorite books. Why do they recommend it?

I loved this book because it was another daughter reminiscing about her relationship with her father following his death.

I could empathize with the emptiness Schultz felt in the midst of her father’s absence, but also feel the joy she experienced when remembering him. Also, I like reading books written by other lesbians, especially books about family.

In hard times, we rely on family to support us emotionally, and Schulz, through her relationship with her partner, demonstrated that beautifully. 

Since I’m deep in the process of writing my own memoir, I was awed by Schulz’s brilliant structure.

She organized her book into three parts: "Lost," which explores the comic, frustrating, heartbreaking experience of losing things, grounded in her account of her father’s death; "Found" examines the experience of discovery, from new ideas to new planets, grounded in her story of falling in love; and finally, "And," which illustrates the way these events happen in conjunction and imply the inevitable: life immerses us in grief and suffering, beauty and grandeur all at once. 

I felt a kinship at Schulz’s expression of dislike for the “well-intentioned” euphemisms for dying.

Her visual explanations of what well-wishers really feel and the almost cinematic movement through her experience in losing her father reveal a skilled writer. I’m drawn more to fine writing than trodding through a stranger’s personal journey. The confusion of grief is shared in a scholarly manner including literary references that show loss is a time-worn path.

The self-assignment as torch bearer for our focus of grief is another mantle I recognized. I have found that the legacy of the one we’ve lost becomes a…

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