'How to be Lost' by Amanda Eyre Ward

I finished a novel last night, first one I've read since the New Year. In fact I was re-reading this, which I found in the Oxfam bookshop in St Austell in the winter. I couldn't put it down the first time. This time I was more interested in the writing and the way the story lines are put together.

I can't recommend it highly enough. The story, about a little girl going missing and what subsequently happens to her family, is absorbing, with great touches of humour. Her sister Caroline decides to try and find her after their mother spots a magazine picture she thinks is the girl grown-up.

The stories of the family and the missing daughter come together beautifully and in a very satisfying way. I'm going to lend it to Liam - for some reason I've had him in mind both times I've read it, presumably beacuse he too writes about relationships and he's very observant about the odd little things that people do.

I'm now going to get her first novel 'Sleep Toward Heaven' from an Amazon bookseller. It too is apparently unputdownable.