Brooke Davis

Lost and Found is a quirky first novel from Australian writer Brooke Davis. It’s a essentially a “road movie” plot, peopled by some pretty bizarre characters: Millie - an abandoned child obsessed with death, Agatha - a widow raging at the world, Karl the touch typist - a compulsive widower bemused by life, and Manny - a department store mannequin.

Davis spins her story by shifting the focus between her main characters (other than Manny; sadly we never learn his opinions on life) and revealing their individual stories. Agatha and Karl combine to help Milly track down the mother who has abandoned her. They head from Perth to Kalgoorlie to catch up with her in Melbourne; I’m still not sure why they would do that.

The book is amusing and original, but I kept getting the feeling I was in a Wes Anderson film script. In the end I didn’t like it that much. I think I would give it four stars, except that I found Agatha a really obnoxious and off-putting character and her every appearance annoyed me. I think Davis was trying to engender some sympathy for Agatha, but she fails to do so - the character is just too much of a grotesque.… (mer)

So cute and charming, and also one of the few books that actually writes about old people in a real way and they’re not just unimportant side characters that only think in either good things or simple things. It was cute and charming and made you think at times and made me cry at the end. An unlikely friendship between unlikely people. All so different yet at the same time just the same. The ups and downs of life and the questions and thoughts everyone experiences, truly an amazing and fun book. - rounding my 4.5 to a 5 bc it deserves it and I either can’t or don’t know how to rate half-stars… (mer)