JUNE 2014 - AudioFile
Maud is slowly losing her short-term memory, but she does know that her friend Elizabeth is missing. Davina Porter narrates Emma Healey’s compelling story of memory, identity, and loss. A story about someone who has to repeatedly ask the same questions may sound tedious, but both Healey and Porter are at the top of their game, and the result is a compelling audiobook. Porter modulates her voice to sound slightly younger or older depending on whether she’s narrating a present-day portion of the story or scenes from Maud’s past. It could have been difficult for the listener to differentiate between the time periods, but Porter’s performance invokes just the right amount of subtlety to make it easy, thus making this an outstanding listen. J.L.K. Winner of AudioFile Earphones Award © AudioFile 2014, Portland, Maine
Publishers Weekly
03/10/2014
British author Healey draws on her own grandmothers’ experiences to create the distinctive narrator of her first novel. Maud Horsham can no longer function safely in the present, and one of the unanswered questions of this sad, unsettling psychological mystery is why Maud lives alone in the south of England, with only a little part-time help and daily visits from Helen, her grown daughter. When Maud becomes obsessed with the apparent disappearance of Elizabeth, “the only friend I have left,” her already erratic life becomes chaotic. All of her attempts to find Elizabeth, including visits to the police, are unsuccessful. Meanwhile, Maud’s search for Elizabeth elicits memories of another disappearance—that of her sister, Sukey, back in 1948. Few readers may want to journey through the mind of a person with dementia, but Healey demonstrates that an absorbing tale can indeed be written from such a perspective. Agent: Karolina Sutton, Curtis Brown (U.K.). (June)
From the Publisher
[A] knockout debut…. Ms. Healey’s audacious conception and formidable talent combine in a bravura performance that sustains its momentum and pathos to the last.” — Wall Street Journal
"Spellbinding." — New York Times Book Review
“Ingeniously structured and remarkably poignant…. A riveting story of friendship and loss that will have you compulsively puzzling fact from fiction as you race to the last page.” — Kimberly McCreight, New York Times bestselling author of Reconstructing Amelia, Where They Found Her, and A Good Marriage
“This is no conventional crime novel but a compelling work that crosses literary genres. Maud’s experience of dementia is harrowing at times, especially in comparison to her completely lucid moments. The two mysteries at the heart of the book, too—one experienced as a girl and the other as an elderly woman—are brilliantly handled. The result is bold, touching and hugely memorable.” — Sunday Times (London)
“Elizabeth Is Missing is every bit as compelling as the...hype suggests.... The novel is both a gripping detective yarn and a haunting depiction of mental illness, but also more poignant and blackly comic than you might expect.” — The Observer (London)
“Not only have we several genres in the one novel, we have two main themes. How it feels to experience dementia, and a page-turner of a detective story. If I had to describe it in one word, it would be beautiful. It is a gripping thriller, but it’s also about life and love: the love of an exasperated daughter for her mother; the love of sisters and of friends and the love I felt for Maud.” — The Independent (London)
“A compelling read, Elizabeth is Missing offers added depth of mystery and suspense along with aptly portraying a family trying to cope with illness.” — New York Journal of Books
“A gripping mystery…this bears comparison to A Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time and S. J. Watson’s Before I Go to Sleep. — The Bookseller, “Ones to Watch”
“Elizabeth is Missing will stir and shake you: an investigation into a seventy-year-old crime, through the eyes of the most likeably unreliable of narrators. But the real mystery at its compassionate core is the fragmentation of the human mind.” — Emma Donoghue
“Part mystery, part meditation on memory, part Dickensian revelation of how apparent charity may hurt its recipients, this is altogether brilliant.” — Booklist (starred review)
“British author Healey draws on her own grandmothers’ experiences to create the distinctive narrator of her first novel… an absorbing tale.” — Publishers Weekly
“Maud’s memory is failing, slipping further away each day. So how can she convince anyone that her best friend is truly missing?…A poignant novel of loss.” — Kirkus Reviews
“Healey is able to imagine and empathize on such a level because she’s simply a brilliant writer. Let’s hope we hear much more from her over the years.” — BookPage
“A thrillingly assured, haunting and unsettling novel, I read it at a gulp.” — Deborah Moggach, author of The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel
“This novel genuinely is one of those semi-mythical beasts, the book you cannot put down.” — Jonathan Coe, author of The Rotter’s Club
Emma Donoghue
Elizabeth is Missing will stir and shake you: an investigation into a seventy-year-old crime, through the eyes of the most likeably unreliable of narrators. But the real mystery at its compassionate core is the fragmentation of the human mind.
Kimberly McCreight
Ingeniously structured and remarkably poignant…. A riveting story of friendship and loss that will have you compulsively puzzling fact from fiction as you race to the last page.
Booklist (starred review)
Part mystery, part meditation on memory, part Dickensian revelation of how apparent charity may hurt its recipients, this is altogether brilliant.
The Bookseller
A gripping mystery…this bears comparison to A Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time and S. J. Watson’s Before I Go to Sleep.
New York Journal of Books
A compelling read, Elizabeth is Missing offers added depth of mystery and suspense along with aptly portraying a family trying to cope with illness.
Wall Street Journal
[A] knockout debut…. Ms. Healey’s audacious conception and formidable talent combine in a bravura performance that sustains its momentum and pathos to the last.
The Observer (London)
Elizabeth Is Missing is every bit as compelling as the...hype suggests.... The novel is both a gripping detective yarn and a haunting depiction of mental illness, but also more poignant and blackly comic than you might expect.
New York Times Book Review
"Spellbinding."
The Independent (London)
Not only have we several genres in the one novel, we have two main themes. How it feels to experience dementia, and a page-turner of a detective story. If I had to describe it in one word, it would be beautiful. It is a gripping thriller, but it’s also about life and love: the love of an exasperated daughter for her mother; the love of sisters and of friends and the love I felt for Maud.
Sunday Times (London)
This is no conventional crime novel but a compelling work that crosses literary genres. Maud’s experience of dementia is harrowing at times, especially in comparison to her completely lucid moments. The two mysteries at the heart of the book, too—one experienced as a girl and the other as an elderly woman—are brilliantly handled. The result is bold, touching and hugely memorable.
BookPage
Healey is able to imagine and empathize on such a level because she’s simply a brilliant writer. Let’s hope we hear much more from her over the years.
Jonathan Coe
This novel genuinely is one of those semi-mythical beasts, the book you cannot put down.
Deborah Moggach
A thrillingly assured, haunting and unsettling novel, I read it at a gulp.
Wall Street Journal
[A] knockout debut…. Ms. Healey’s audacious conception and formidable talent combine in a bravura performance that sustains its momentum and pathos to the last.
null The Observer (London)
Elizabeth Is Missing is every bit as compelling as the...hype suggests.... The novel is both a gripping detective yarn and a haunting depiction of mental illness, but also more poignant and blackly comic than you might expect.
null The Independent (London)
Not only have we several genres in the one novel, we have two main themes. How it feels to experience dementia, and a page-turner of a detective story. If I had to describe it in one word, it would be beautiful. It is a gripping thriller, but it’s also about life and love: the love of an exasperated daughter for her mother; the love of sisters and of friends and the love I felt for Maud.
The Independent
It is a gripping thriller, but it’s also about life and love: the love of an exasperated daughter for her mother; the love of sisters and of friends and the love I felt for Maud.
The Observer
Elizabeth Is Missing is every bit as compelling as the...hype suggests.... The novel is both a gripping detective yarn and a haunting depiction of mental illness, but also more poignant and blackly comic than you might expect.
JUNE 2014 - AudioFile
Maud is slowly losing her short-term memory, but she does know that her friend Elizabeth is missing. Davina Porter narrates Emma Healey’s compelling story of memory, identity, and loss. A story about someone who has to repeatedly ask the same questions may sound tedious, but both Healey and Porter are at the top of their game, and the result is a compelling audiobook. Porter modulates her voice to sound slightly younger or older depending on whether she’s narrating a present-day portion of the story or scenes from Maud’s past. It could have been difficult for the listener to differentiate between the time periods, but Porter’s performance invokes just the right amount of subtlety to make it easy, thus making this an outstanding listen. J.L.K. Winner of AudioFile Earphones Award © AudioFile 2014, Portland, Maine
Kirkus Reviews
2014-04-10
Maud's memory is failing, slipping further away each day. So how can she convince anyone that her best friend is truly missing?In her debut novel, Healey deftly evokes the frustrations of Maud and her daughter, both annoyed by Maud's inability to remember that she bought peach slices yesterday (not to mention the day before), or her own address or the fact that she's already alerted the police to Elizabeth's absence four times. Large and small notes blanket the house and fill Maud's purse with reminders (no more peaches; Elizabeth's son says she's OK), but Maud disregards or mistrusts them, questioning her daughter's authority and Elizabeth's son's truthfulness. Healey also compassionately draws the landscape of Maud's mind, layering the past over the present, blurring the lines between reality and memory. Just as she's worried about Elizabeth in the present, she's troubled by events from her childhood in post-World War II London. Then, she and her parents had a lodger, Douglas. Her sister, Sukey, lived with her husband, Frank, in a big house crammed with odds and ends collected through his furniture-moving business. But Sukey disappeared, too. Both Douglas and Frank were briefly considered suspects. Certainly, Douglas' close friendship with Sukey and Frank's mysterious business dealings raised some hackles. But a lack of evidence prompted officials to determine that Sukey likely just ran away. But Maud never believed that her beloved sister would have left of her own accord without saying goodbye. Could the two mysteries be connected? With little to no assistance from the police, then or now, the family must band together to discover the truth. At first, Maud's disintegrating memory stymies her progress, but soon enough, the elision of boundaries becomes an asset.A poignant novel of loss.
