Lost and Found is the story of two lost people, Carol and Albert, strangers to one another, there is no earthly reason for their lives to cross. Carol is thirty eight, unhappily married to Bob and mother to a daughter she doesn’t really like or understand. Secretly yearning for a man she knew years earlier, at war with both her mother and her daughter, Carol seems to hate much of what she sees around her. Albert is a sixty five year old post office worker, living with his cat Gloria, and the memory of his wife who died forty years earlier. Filled with dread at the thought of his approaching retirement, Albert feels the world has no more use for him. As if to demonstrate this, Albert is put to work his last few weeks in the undeliverable mail office.

Meanwhile Carol feels like walking away from her life, escaping to Athens. She feels she had wasted her life, married to wrong man, living the wrong life. However her husband is going through a crisis, the timing couldn’t really be worse. Carol’s friend Helen tells her to write a letter, a letter to the universe – get everything off her chest, and count her blessings. So Carol does, she writes a letter putting a smiley face on the outside of the envelope in place of an address. It is into Albert’s hands that Carol’s letter drops, and Albert reads it. Carol’s letters begin to give Albert’s life some purpose, and the writing of them begins to help Carol sort out her feelings about a lot of things that she really needs to deal with. letters
Albert is a character not dissimilar to Harold Fry in Rachel Joyce’s successful novel The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry – but I liked him rather more than poor old Harold. I adored Albert I have to say, his grief and loneliness is really touching, and felt very real. Sitting in front of a muted television for company and talking to his cat and his dead wife, who wouldn’t feel for this lost soul?
Lost and found is a good engrossing read, written with humour and suffused with some really poignant moments. The loneliness of unhappy or wasted lives, the need to connect with someone, with anyone is at the heart of this novel. I think many people will fall for Albert and Gloria, I must say I didn’t like Carol much – her years of unhappiness have taken their toll, so she is a character it is still possible to sympathise with.
This is author Tom Winter’s first novel, I am grateful to Corsair for sending it, and I suspect it will be a novel that does very well.

If you have found this book, thank you for taking the time to look it up on the internet. Now please tell us what you thought of the book and what your plans for it are.

This is a wonderful novel with believable characters that I truly rooted for. I hope Tom Winter writes many more novels in the future.

Taking to meetup again to give someone else a chance, I snapped this up straight away at Ali's recommendation. Thanks, Ali x

Picked this up at today's meet - looks interesting - and I now see it comes highly recommended too!

Having a bit of a cull of my TBRs, so taking this to today's meet-up

I am bringing this book to the BCBrum meet-up this afternoon. You can find us at @bxbrum on Twitter! If not taken by one of the attendees, it will end up on the bookshelves in the cafe.

If this is your first experience with BookCrossing, thanks so much for picking up this book and coming to the BookCrossing website to find out what it's all about. Welcome to the addictive world of BookCrossing!

I look forward to hearing what you thought of this book, and of your plans for it.

Was persuaded to take this from York's yesterday as it comes highly recommended.

Jen, you should have read it, it is really good. I honestly didn't need any more books but was very pleased to have taken this one.

On the shelf to the left as you go into the back room.

On the shelf to the right as you go towards the stairs.

On the bookshelf at the top of the stairs.Brought to the meeting of Birmingham Bookcrossers. If not wanted it will be left on the shelf to the right as you go into the back room.

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On the bookshelf opposite the counter.

On the bookshelf in the middle room.

On the book swap shelf at the back of Mary Seacole library.

This book has been released for the Never Judge A Book By Its Cover release challenge 2015, Week 3 (cover picture continues onto spine).

Welcome to Bookcrossing! You are about to lose a whole chunk of your life, but I assure you it will be worthwhile. Do let us know your thoughts about this book, and your plans for its next move.

'Like' Birmingham Bookcrossers on Facebook - BCBrum https://m.facebook.com/groups/243069614126?ref=bookmark

Follow us at @bxbrum on Twitter!