- Paperback: 320 pages
- Publisher: Ballantine Books; Reprint edition (Aug 30 2005)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 0345483170
- ISBN-13: 978-0345483171
- Product Dimensions: 20.5 x 13.4 x 1.8 cm
- Shipping Weight: 227 g
- Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (1 customer review)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: #350,326 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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Product Details |
Product Description
From Booklist
Fifteen years ago, on the day the three Winters sisters packed their most precious belongings in their mother's Oldsmobile and planned to run away from home just as soon as school was out, 5-year-old Ellie disappeared. The family never recovered: their abusive father drank himself to death; their unstable mother retreated deeper into her depression; and once-close sisters Caroline and Madeline grew far apart. Now, armed with a grainy People magazine photo of a young woman who might be a 20-year-old version of her beloved youngest sister, Caroline heads out for Montana on a quest to bring her back home. What Caroline, burdened by years of guilt, doubt, and regret, discovers along the way has as much to do with finding herself as it does with tracking down Ellie. Ward's smart, sharp second novel is a read-in-one-sitting treat, a delightfully satisfying blend of hip humor and poignant longing, and an unsentimental yet inspiring testimony to the power of hope over reason and love over loss. Carol Haggas
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.
Review
“One of those sink-your-teeth-into-it novels that remind you why you love to read.”
–The Charlotte Observer
“Invites comparison to The Lovely Bones . . . Ward’s depiction of family, with its attendant love and guilt, will keep you turning pages.”
–People
“A compelling page-turner [that] unfolds as part suspense novel, part memoir . . . [How to Be Lost] chronicles Caroline’s tale with vivid eloquence, clarity, and dark, nuanced humor.”
–The Boston Globe
“The narrative is so engrossing, so propelling, you’re surprised to come upon the last page.”
–Time Out New York
“Affecting . . . sustains suspense to the very end and brings a tear to the eye.”
–The Denver Post
–The Charlotte Observer
“Invites comparison to The Lovely Bones . . . Ward’s depiction of family, with its attendant love and guilt, will keep you turning pages.”
–People
“A compelling page-turner [that] unfolds as part suspense novel, part memoir . . . [How to Be Lost] chronicles Caroline’s tale with vivid eloquence, clarity, and dark, nuanced humor.”
–The Boston Globe
“The narrative is so engrossing, so propelling, you’re surprised to come upon the last page.”
–Time Out New York
“Affecting . . . sustains suspense to the very end and brings a tear to the eye.”
–The Denver Post
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Customer Reviews
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Most helpful customer reviews
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars
VERY EXCITING PAGETURNER!!!,,
By
This review is from: How to Be Lost: A Novel (Paperback)
"Mom it can't really be her," I said though my heart was hammering in my chest."But what if it is?" I shook my head and stared at the picture. The girl looked like me, like Madeline. She looked like my mother." This was indeed a page turner with many exciting characters. We meet the Winter family in this book; the children about to make an escape from their parents whom, they decided were treating them with indifference and taking them for granted. They plotted from the day before, and were set to meet after school, but when meeting time came, the smallest sister Ellie did not turn up as expected. From that time onwards, things go topsy turvy in the Winter family as Caroline and Madeline and their parents look for answers to what could had become of Ellie on this day. Daughter Caroline, refuses to give up her search, especially when she sees a photograph in a People magazine of someone resembling what her sister would look like at twenty years. She travels far and wide to unravel this mystery, but towards the end the mystery is solved. Get the answers in this exciting drama. Reviewed by Heather Marshall Negahdar (SUGAR-CANE 14/10/06)
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta) Amazon.com:
3.9 out of 5 stars (103 customer reviews) 70 of 74 people found the following review helpful
4.0 out of 5 stars
The geography of loss,
By Luan Gaines "luansos" - Published on Amazon.com
This review is from: How to Be Lost (Hardcover)
There are many ways to be lost, even when a life is clearly defined by family and responsibilities. In her new novel, Ward tackles the kind of loss that tears a hole in the family fabric, even an already broken family, leaving it open and fragmented.The two older sisters, Caroline and Madeline, are protective of their younger sibling, Ellie, knowing instinctively that their home is in trouble, their father disappearing farther each day into an ocean of alcohol, where he floats alone. An inept, if beautiful, mother is inadequate, unable to curtail her husband's drinking, but too self-obsessed to see what is happening to her girls. For their part, the girls create their own private alliance, secretly planning to run away to New Orleans. When Ellie suddenly disappears, the family is caught in a time warp none of them can escape, blindsided by sudden catastrophe. From an upper-class New York neighborhood to New Orleans bars to the dank world of nighttime Missoula, Montana, the Winters family searches for identity in all the wrong places, hoping to fill in that empty place where once a happy child lived. But nothing they do geographically can heal the emotional damage of that loss. Caroline and Madeline drift apart, Caroline to New Orleans, where she drinks hardily, avoiding commitment and life choices, Madeline to marriage and life in the city. Their still beautiful mother never recovers from the loss of her youngest daughter, searching endlessly for leads. When Isabel is killed in an accident, Caroline and Madeline are confronted with their own harsh realities and the need for closure. This is a story about being lost and being found, sometimes without ever leaving home. Beautifully executed, the novel builds precisely to its denouement, a place where choice is inevitable and the past must be put to rest in service of the future. The prose is compelling, the characters as real as my own eccentric family and their dilemmas as familiar as any facing those who encounter tragedy, but must move on. Time is irrevocable but forgiveness is not. There is always a way home. Luan Gaines/2004. 36 of 39 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars
Another Winner From Amanda Ward,
By Sarah Rocklin - Published on Amazon.com
Amazon Verified Purchase(What's this?)
This review is from: How to Be Lost (Hardcover)
I loved Ward's first book so much, I wondered if her second would be the victim the dreaded sophomore slump. But no worries...Ward gives us another moving tale, beautifully written.This book, like her first, gives us several threads to follow, and one of Ward's gift is her ability to take those threads and weave them into a solid whole without any sense of manipulation. Caroline, Maddy and Ellie are such compelling characters and the love and tensions between sisters are drawn so well. Can't wait for Ward's third! 13 of 13 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars
Excellent book,
By Cathe Fein Olson "Avid reader and writer" - Published on Amazon.com
This review is from: How to Be Lost: A Novel (Paperback)
The story focuses on oldest sister Caroline, a lonely cocktail waitress in New Orleans - afraid to get close to anyone and still feeling guilty about the disappearance of her youngest sister, Ellie. Meanwhile, back in NY her mother and sister Maddy are still trying to deal with the youngest sister's disappearance in their own ways. Since the sister had never been found, the family cannot find closure. Then the mother sees a picture in a magazine that looks like the missing Ellie and wants Caroline to search for her.This is one of those books just makes you want to read on forever. I enjoyed it from the very first page - the wonderful writing, the disfunctional characters who were just as lost as the missing sister, the plot and the way the story unfolded. I will definitely be reading this author's other book. |
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