The Keeper of Lost Things | Ruth Hogan
“The wonderful thing about books was that they were films that played inside your head.”
To be perfectly honest, this book was a complete cover buy. I read the synopsis at the end, of course, but I was a bit on the fence about it. Still, the gorgeous cover had me reaching for it. I had to take it home and, thankfully, did not regret it.
This book follows two story lines that intersect at some point. There is love and heartbreak and learning how to live and move on. How to give yourself and other people a chance.
“If you never get sadness, how do you know what happy is like?”
Laura works as a housekeeper for Anthony. He is a recluse and a loner and she is not allowed to go into his office. But when he dies, he leaves all of his possessions to her, with one request. What Laura never knew was that Anthony kept all the lost things he has ever found, with a detailed account of when and where he has found them. A long time ago he lost a precious keepsake and in order to right that mistake, he set himself a mission to return others' lost items to them. Now that he is gone, Laura is to finish his mission.
Reeling from a divorce and buckling under this new responsibility, Laura is understandably overwhelmed. But with the help of Anthony's gardener Freddy and Sunshine, the neighbors' quirky daughter, she starts her mission and in the process changes lives - lives of the people who are reunited with their lost possessions, lives of herself and Freddy and Sunshine, and even in s way, Anthony's life.
“A hush is a dangerous thing. Silence is solid and dependable, but a hush is expectant, like a pregnant pause; it invites mischief, like a loose thread begging to be pulled.”
The other story follows Eunice and Bomber, and the story starts the same day as Anthony's quest. Theirs is a story of heartbreak, friendship, companionship and love - quiet, supportive love - and ultimately a story of tragic loss. I will not deny having cried over certain parts of their story.
There are also short stories about the lost objects that appear to be written by Anthony, a sort of provenance stories, and these can be quite touching, too. At first I thought that he just wrote what he imagined happened, but as some of the owners came for their objects and told their stories, I wondered whether he knew something we didn't.
In the end, this is a touching story about how everything has its place. And everyone. It's a story about love, redemption, a story of holding on and letting go, it's about loss and hope. I hope you read it and feel something. Anything, really, because the only things I am sure it won't leave you is indifferent.
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