Take The Lost Mother Authored By Tracy Buchanan Listed As Physical Book
for signing up for author's newsletter, See NG for download. Previously published as The Atlas of Us in the UK
How far would you go for those you love the most
When Louise McKenzies mother is reported missing after the Boxing Day tsunami, Louise leaves her young family and travels to Thailand.
There, she finds a bag containing her mothers passport and a book filled with beautifully illustrated maps: The Atlas of Us, belonging to a woman named Claire,
Who is Claire How was Louises mom connected to her And might the atlas help Louise find the answers she needs and her mom
As Louise pores over the keepsakes hidden amongst its pages, she pieces together the mystery of a love affair, a dark tragedy and a secret both Claire and her mother would go to the ends of the earth to protect.
A gripping, pageturning and emotionally powerful story about love, loss and making peace with the past, perfect for fans of Liane Moriarty,
What readers are saying about Tracy Buchanan:
A compelling, page turning read about secrets in families and the unwitting consequencesI was completely hookedSad, powerful and absorbing.
Julia Williams
A compelling and emotional read that pulled me in full of intrigue and secrets, A riveting story that I know will stay with me for a very long time, Alexandra Brown
Beautiful, heartbreaking, upliftingReally worth a read, Hello!
An ambitious and deeply poignant story that will take you into another world, Heat
I could see it playing out like a movie as I was readingI loved it, Novelkicks
A pacy readA great book to take to the beach! Daily Mail
Emotionallycharged, Take A Break
Previously published as The Atlas of Us in the UK, I tried really hard to love this book and finish it, I hate leaving things unfinished, I just can't finish it! The blurb sounded fantastic and I loved the start of the story, . . I made it all the way to pageby forcing myself to continue and feel that it has given me readers block, Is there such a thing, I just can't continue reading, It hate to say anything bad about someones hard work but like a previous reviewer I started finding the story very droll to the point where I stopped reading for days on end which is not me.
I love reading!! I am glad to see that there were many other really fantastic reviews, but sadly I am going to be skipping this and moving onto something I will enjoy.
As a fan of Tracys books I thought it was long overdue to read her debut book and all I can say is that I should never have left it so long to read it.
It has been a truly amazing read, so heartfelt in places and such a powerful read,
I thought the story was brilliantly well written and the characters are all so very well portrayed and believable, absolutely loved getting to know them all and trying to figure out how they fit in with the story itself.
There were plenty of surprises along the way, some of them quite shocking too, I found this to be a highly intense and emotional read, especially come the last few chapters, which literally had me sitting on the edge of my seat waiting the outcome of it all.
I feel like Ive traveled a fair bit whilst reading this book, as you visit and stay at so many different places, so it was certainly interesting and insightful throughout.
So if you havent given Tracys books a try yet, then I highly recommend that you do,
Full review on sitelinkwww, novelgossip. com
Within the past few months Ive become a huge fan of Tracy Buchanans having read both No Turning Back and My Sisters Secret and immensely enjoying both.
I knew as soon as I saw The Lost Mother was being released in the US I had to read it, Usually if I read at least three books by an author that captive me I add them to my auto buy list, Im delighted to say that I just added Buchanan to it!
This book is really two separate narratives that eventually merge into one, Told in both the past and the present and from two viewpoints, first from Louise inimmediately following the devastating tsunami in Thailand and from Claire beginning a few years before the tsunami.
For much of the book I was wondering what these two women had in common but Buchanan slowly tells their individual stories then before you know it things begin to piece together.
Louise is desperate to find her mother who was in Thailand when the tsunami hit, Theyve been estranged for two years and she is full of regret and sorrow while she searches frantically for her mother, As she begins to unravel the puzzle of what happened to her mother, Nora she gets way more confusing information than she bargained for, Claire is a character that touched me deeply, especially as she detailed her struggles with infertility, I cant imagine the pain and heartbreak that comes with being told you will never conceive,
Ive mentioned in my other reviews of Buchanans work that she has a magical quality to her writing, especially her magnificent use of stunning imagery, She writes such a detailed and deeply rich narrative full of enchanting descriptions of the setting, The Lost Mother hops all around the globe to some exotic and far flung places and the way she describes these cities allows the reader to fully immerse themselves into the story.
There were times that I really felt like I was standing next to Louise and Claire smelling the sea air or feeling the red Australian sand beneath my feet.
This book really has something for every type of reader, There is romance, a bit of suspense, mystery, painful secrets and drama along with a deep and emotional depth, both in the characters and the plot, The storyline is complicated but not in a frustrating way, just an interesting way that absorbed me until the very last page,
Wow! What a book! Starting with a gorgous book cover that urges you to turn the page,
The story begins with a woman caught up in the tsunami in Thailand, we can only imagine what her fate was,
Louise hasn't spoken with her mother in two years after a falling out, She knows her mum was in Thailand so she flies out to find her much to the horror of her disapproving and controlling husband,
While searching for her mum Louise finds her bag inside which is an atlas full of photos and keepsakes belonging to Claire Sherve who is presumed dead as body has been identified by a friend.
We then hear Claire's story and it's a heartbreaking one, I was so wound up about it because I really liked her and I knew what happened to her at the end,
We are taken through the story from Thailand to Exmoor, Serbia,Venice, Finland and Australia, Claire meets Milo and his extended family and although this may be the love she has been looking for it also comes with heartbreak,
There is so much more to this story and what a wonderful film it would make,
This is one of those books where I'm so anxious to tell you what happens next but I also don't want to spoil your enjoyment, I couldn't put it down, What a great debut novel from Tracy Buchanan, I can't wait for her next one, In het begin heel moeilijk om in te komen, lange hoofdstukken maar daarna werd het minder, Mooi om twee verhalen te lezen die op het eind samenkomen Nope, not for me, My book group discussed this last night and just listening to the various incredulous comments took me back in time to when my mum and her pals would talk about what happened in in Crossroads or Corrie that week.
I felt like the author had her plot all mapped out then dropped the container with all the rejected plots on top and couldn't remember which ones she'd chosen so the plot jumps from one unlikely scenario to another.
Harsh I'm afraid, but not for me,
From the publisher: When Louise McKenzies mother is reported missing after a terrifying tsunami, Louise leaves her young family and travels to Thailand to find her.
There, she locates a bag containing her mothers passport as well as a book filled with beautifully illustrated maps: The Atlas of Us, which seems to belong to a woman named Claire.
Who is Claire How was Louises mum connected to her And might the atlas help Louise find the answers she needs not to mention her mum
As Louise pores over the keepsakes hidden amongst its pages, she pieces together the mystery of a love affair, a dark tragedy and a secret both Claire and her mother would go to the ends of the earth to protect.
The issues that I really liked in this book were first, parenthood, and how far you would go to protect your children, even though one of the characters is infertile and yearns for a child.
And second, when do you stop trying to conform to society and just be yourself, I loved the backstory of theTaiwan tsunami and the glimpses of other foreign countries that our main characters flit through,
What I did not like was how the beginning of the book was structured, The back and forth timetrend in books these days can be very effective for building and lengthening tension in a story, but in this book, it caused me to disconnect with the characters.
I almost quit halfway through because I was so confused as to whose story was whose, I'm glad I didn't because it was at that point that it really started to come together and take off for me,
I really enjoyed this novel,
The Lost Mother is beyond excellent, It is wellwritten, but beyond that it speaks from the author's heart to mine, I feel like she is telling me about lives, not "writing" a third person book, The narrative is awesome. I read her first novel and look forward to reading her next one, Good going Tracy!! I'm quite sad this The Lost Mother's finished now, I truly loved it. I think I will read it again in the future even, This book wasn't predictable at all, It was one big surprise and shocking at parts, Not a cheesy lovestory at all, that's one of the main reasons I love it so much, Everybody should read this. It's wonderful! Simply an excellent read, the start is brilliantly written and based on the events of the tsunami inthat hit Thailand and surrounding area, The story then goes back in time and focuses on the main character of the novel working forwards to the start and you find out how everyone ends up in Thailand.
The twist at the end is brilliant as it changes how you have thought about the characters throughout the story, The reason I gave four rather than five was simply down to some repetitive phrases that the author uses which is sometimes annoying, hopefully this will be something that she will work on in future novels, though I have to say that I am particularly picky with this sort of repetion.
A beautiful, beautiful novel. Absolutely loved it! : I have to be honest I really didn't enjoy this book very much, I had high hopes for it, but they were really not met, I thought the premise behind the book, a bit of a mystery surrounding family in the wake of the tsunami, sounded really promising, space for drama and intrigue as well as a hint of sadness and there was bound to be a love story in there somewhere right I was just really disappointed by the storyline as a whole.
I found myself switching off in parts and struggle to remember every detail of the entire book now because it really hasn't stuck with me and I've literally just finished reading it! I think for me, the potential was there for a lot to happen and nothing much really happened.
I thought the structure of the book was excellent, stories running alongside each other but during different times, knowing that the two stories would tie up at some point and the mystery would be revealed.
The stories didn't tie up until the very last moment and I didn't really attach myself to either story, I think that Clare's story kept me more interested than Louise's
story, There was definitely more drama there and more things happened, but i thought that perhaps they were happening just for the sake of it and sometimes things didn't really contribute to the plot at all.
I'd didn't get Louise's character at all and so I think that's why I didn't like her story as much,
The characters in Clare's story had a lot about them, they all had hidden pasts and secrets they were keeping from one another despite promising not to, however, although I was drawn to these characters, I didn't feel connected to their stories.
I felt Louise was pretty flat as a character and I don't really understand where the other characters in her storyline came from or how they fitted in.
I did read this book in its entirity, persevering until the end to see if anything grabbed me but it really didn't and I really have struggled to find something interesting to say about it.
There are exotic settings but the description didn't particularly whisk me away there, There are interesting characters, but I dint really fel any connection with them and there are interesting storylines, but they didn't really tie together for me so overall I didn't really enjoy this book or get what I was expecting from it.
It won't put me off picking up other books from this author in the future though, but this just wasn't for me,
.