{"product_id":"loved-and-missed-isbn-9781681377810","title":"Loved and Missed","description":"\u003cb\u003eWith her daughter in the throes of drug addiction, a mother takes  over the care of her granddaughter—and is transformed by the bond that  forms between them—in this warm, sharp-witted, and psychologically acute  story of familial love by a praised British novelist.\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eRuth is a woman who believes in and despairs of the curative power of love. Her daughter, Eleanor, who is addicted to drugs, has just had a baby, Lily. Ruth adjusts herself in ways large and small to give to Eleanor what she thinks she may need—nourishment, distance, affection—but all her gifts fall short. After someone dies of an overdose in Eleanor's apartment, Ruth hands her daughter an envelope of cash and takes Lily home with her, and Lily, as she grows, proves a compensation for all of Ruth's past defeats and disappointment. Love without fear is a new feeling for her, almost unrecognizable. Will it last? \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003eLove and Missed\u003c\/i\u003e is a whip-smart, incisive, and mordantly witty novel about love's gains and missteps. British writer Susie Boyt's seventh novel, and the first to be published in the United States, is a triumph.“If my tattered and heavily annotated copy of \u003ci\u003eLoved and Missed\u003c\/i\u003e serves as a harbinger, Boyt has written a 21st-century classic.... Boyt, an acute student of Henry James’s fiction, creates an interlocking series of narratives that is not reducible to the so-called “trauma plot”. No single memory or cluster of memories explains why Ruth feels “smashed up” at the novel’s outset. Instead, \u003ci\u003eLoved and Missed\u003c\/i\u003e tracks the shambolic emergence of Ruth’s past within the present-tense narrative, and, in the process, raises as many questions as it answers—particularly regarding her relationship with Eleanor.” —Eric Gudas, \u003ci\u003eLos Angeles Review of Books\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“Finally, a novel as happy as it is compelling, as beautiful as it is realistic...oh, the lightness and pleasure of Lily and Ruth, their keen companionship over tea and toast, quick trips to the seaside, plimsolls by the door...this is the rare novel that brings equal amounts of solace and joy.” —Hillary Kelly, \u003ci\u003eLos Angeles Times\u003c\/i\u003e “Books of the Year” \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"It is one of the great charms of the book that, while Boyt is clear-eyed about the compulsions driving Ruth’s caregiving, the descriptions of this caregiving remain so seductive. Much of the novel depicts, with exquisite detail, the prosaic patterns of Ruth and Lily’s home life—quotidian routines between grandmother and granddaughter that are mildly intoxicating.\" —Jane Hu, \u003ci\u003eThe New Yorker\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"Enough to disarm even the most cynical readers. \u003ci\u003eLoved and Missed\u003c\/i\u003e bottles up those fleeting, blissful moments of child-rearing and spritzes each page liberally with their scent. The happiness Boyt describes is so infectious that you want it to last, for your own sake; it isn’t often that readers of literary fiction float along in such placid waters.\" —Hillary Kelly, \u003ci\u003eThe Atlantic\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"There is something eminently sensible about this book’s everyday depictions of sadness and courage, something that seems to me quite British, reminiscent of Margaret Drabble and Penelope Lively.... the novel’s heartbreaking ending is fringed with consolations. Ms. Boyt has written her novel with honesty and kindness.\" \u003ci\u003e \u003c\/i\u003e—Sam Sacks,\u003ci\u003e The Wall Street Journal\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"Like nearly everything else about this novel, the title does double duty, like a Murphy bed with a secretary desk on its flip side. At first I read it as if it were a gravestone. Only after I finished the book did I see another meaning: 'missed' as a target might be, as if love were a rocket fired from the shoulder.\"\u003ci\u003e —\u003c\/i\u003eJoumana Khatib,\u003ci\u003e The New York Times\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\"But the book is written with such understatement and so little pity that it slips past all your tactical gear and shanks you in the lungs, spleen, and femoral arteries before double-tapping you, in the final chapter, with a POV shift that’s borderline unethical. Ruth is pissed off, elegiac, heroic, ironic, forbearing, and glum, but never saintly, and Boyt’s careful modulations of tone keep you off-balance.\" —Tony Tulathimutte, \u003ci\u003eThe Paris Review \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\"The best book I read, period, was Susie Boyt’s Loved and Missed, a perfectly calibrated emotional whirlwind that made me cry, a reaction I’ve since passed on to several friends.\" —Jeremy Gordon, \u003ci\u003eThe Millions Year in Review \u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"The novel conveys the full spectrum of Ruth trying to mother Eleanor in her troubled state from afar….This tale of sorrow and devotion with a layer of hope is for fans of real-world family fiction focusing on intense situations.\" —Beth Liebman Gibbs, \u003ci\u003eLibrary Journal\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"[\u003ci\u003eLoved and Missed \u003c\/i\u003ehas] an impeccable tone: funny, dark, quiet, sharp.\" —Maggie Lange, \u003ci\u003eBustle\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"A single mother navigates custody of her granddaughter—and tries to correct mistakes she made the first time around—in this gentle but heart-wrenching story....Readers who are averse to crying in public be warned: You’ll want to sit with this astounding story at home.\" —\u003ci\u003eKirkus Starred Review \u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"UK author Boyt’s first novel to be published in the States covers the themes of parenting, addiction, and forgiveness....This tale of sorrow and devotion with a layer of hope is for fans of real-world family fiction focusing on intense situations.\" —\u003ci\u003eLibrary Journal\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"British writer Boyt delivers a story of filial estrangement in her mordant and touching U.S. debut…Boyt’s assured effort brims with intelligence and feeling.\" —\u003ci\u003ePublishers Weekly\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\"Describing the novel as a page-turner feels wrong, but in its quiet way, it was more gripping than anything else I’ve read recently. I’m in awe of Boyt’s ability to turn the gathering of flowers or the drinking of tea on the front steps into moments of pure wonder.\" — \u003ci\u003eLithub\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“What a beautiful, illuminating and deeply humane novel Susie Boyt has given us—her prose glorious, her characters alive upon the page, their voices and gestures utterly vivid. \u003ci\u003eLoved and Missed\u003c\/i\u003e, rich like life itself in sorrow, comedy and joy, is a triumph.” —Claire Messud\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“\u003ci\u003eLoved and Missed\u003c\/i\u003e is a story of parental love and human failing that’s more funny than it has any right to be, more heartbreaking than you think you can bear; it's the sort of book you can’t wait to recommend to everyone you know, the sort of book we are lucky to have.” —Rumaan Alam\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“Susie Boyt is an extraordinary novelist of the inner life. \u003ci\u003eLoved and Missed\u003c\/i\u003e is her most masterful, most fearless book yet.” —Joseph O'Neill\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“Loved and Missed\u003c\/i\u003e deftly sidesteps the clichés that often plague stories involving drug abuse, and it conveys the complexities of loving someone who can't love you back with remarkable delicacy.” —Mia Levitin, \u003ci\u003eFinancial Times\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“This beautiful tale of love, courage and compassion ... captures the pain of estrangement in penetrating, haunting language.... \u003ci\u003eLoved and Missed\u003c\/i\u003e is a complex, deeply moving novel about frailty and suffering. Despite all the sadness, hope remains.” —Martin Chilton, \u003ci\u003eIndependent\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e“Boyt is both funny ... and poignant ... but never less than impeccably truthful, with a broad, oft breathtaking wisdom.” —Emily Hourican, \u003ci\u003eIrish Independent\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“Boyt's novel is compelling—and invites our compassion for those who may not always earn it, but still deserve it.” —Marianka Swain, \u003ci\u003eDaily Telegraph\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“Always surprising—unexpected, particular, the thing you didn't know you wanted, but needed more than anything. A tender study of unrequited maternal love redeemed ultimately by the quiet glory of not giving up.” —Tamsin Greig\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“Boyt's writing is perceptive and emotionally powerful.” —\u003ci\u003eMSN\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“I adored Susie Boyt's novel \u003ci\u003eLoved And Missed\u003c\/i\u003e, which explores what can happen when, out of the blue, addiction and dereliction arrive to wreck a family. And how goodwill, determination and encouragement can ultimately put things back together again.” —Rev Richard Coles, \u003ci\u003eDaily Mail\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e“This delightful little novel (that is immense in its emotional scope) is the kind of quiet-seeming book that might pass you by. But our conversation ranged widely when we discussed it, and while everyone had quite a strong response, the reactions varied and brought up all kinds of questions about parenting, emotional inheritance, and familial responsibility. I have said it before, but this is a really stunning read.” —\u003ci\u003eVogue\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“Susie Boyt’s \u003ci\u003eLoved and Missed\u003c\/i\u003e is at once deeply moving and wryly funny. The story of a valiant but struggling mother, her drug-addicted daughter and beloved granddaughter, Boyt’s beautiful seventh novel is unputdownable.” —\u003ci\u003eElle.com\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003e“\u003c\/i\u003eWhat makes writing important to me as a reader, but also as a writer, is to convey some small aspect of what it’s like to be alive. And this is a humanly astute novel about all the things you feel in any given moment: love of family, hope, despair, your complicated feelings about yourself — she captures so much so deftly.” —Claire Messud, \u003ci\u003eThe Guardian\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003e“Loved and Missed\u003c\/i\u003e is a book of mothers and mothering with all the attendant agonies and ecstasies. Everyone in the story, from elegant Ruth to her addict daughter Eleanor to Eleanor’s precocious daughter Lily and even Ruth’s fabulous spinster friend Jean, takes a turn. The bonds of motherhood, as Boyt sketches them, do not run in only one direction, from older to younger. … \u003ci\u003eLoved and Missed\u003c\/i\u003e is an epitaph glimpsed in a graveyard by young Lily who, wise beyond her years, understands at once the genuine regret and the black comedy of the inscription.” —\u003ci\u003eMatthew Schneier, The Cut\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cb\u003eSusie Boyt\u003c\/b\u003e is the author of seven novels and the memoir \u003ci\u003eMy Judy Garland Life\u003c\/i\u003e, which was shortlisted for the PEN Ackerley Prize, staged at the Nottingham Playhouse, and serialized on BBC Radio 4. She has written about art, life, and fashion for the \u003ci\u003eFinancial Times\u003c\/i\u003e for many years and recently edited \u003ci\u003eThe Turn of the Screw and Other Ghost Stories\u003c\/i\u003e by Henry James. She is also a director at the Hampstead Theatre. Her most recent novel, \u003ci\u003eLoved and Missed\u003c\/i\u003e, is published by New York Review Books.","brand":"New York Review Books","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":46303795577061,"sku":"NP9781681377810","price":17.95,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1842\/7735\/files\/9781681377810.jpg?v=1767731919","url":"https:\/\/k12savings.com\/es\/products\/loved-and-missed-isbn-9781681377810","provider":"K12savings","version":"1.0","type":"link"}