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Lost Property
In the middle of her life, a writer finds herself in a dark wood, despairing and uncomprehending at how modern Britain has become a place of such greed and indifference. In an attempt to understand her country and her species, she and her lover rent a busted-out van and journey across France to the Mediterranean, across Italy to the Balkans and Greece and on to the islands. Along the way, they drive through the Norman Conquest, the Hundred Years War, the wars with the Huguenots, the fragility of the Italian Renaissance, the Balkan wars of the 1990s and the current refugee crisis, meeting figures from Europe's political and artistic past - a Norman knight, Joan of Arc, Ariosto, D'Annunzio and Alan Moore's nihilistic Rorschach, each lending their own view of humanity at its best and at its very worst.
272 pages, Hardcover
Published May 2, 2019
14 people are currently reading
244 people want to read
About the author
Laura Beatty
11 books11 followersLaura Beatty is the author of Pollard, a novel that won the Authors' Club First Novel Award and was shortlisted for the Ondaatje Prize. She has also written two biographies, the first about Lillie Langtry which contained the first publication of correspondence between Lillie and her lover Arthur Jones, and the second about Anne Boleyn.
(Source: https://atlantic-books.co.uk/contribu...)
(Source: https://atlantic-books.co.uk/contribu...)
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Displaying 1 - 18 of 18 reviews
May 10, 2019
I found this book impressive and interesting - a mixture of history, political philosophy and travel writing that ranges across both Europe and 8000 years of European history.
There is very little plot - at the start of the book we meet a writer, disillusioned by Britain and in search of meaning, who is packing up the contents of her London flat in preparation for a journey in which she and her partner (a photographer) plan to travel in a camper van across Europe to Greece and the Cyclades. Along the way she researches the historical figures whose "lost property" she finds in various museums and historic sites and buildings, and many of them come to life, inhabiting the narrative as characters in their own right, who she questions and pits against each other. She largely avoids the more obvious places (so nothing on Paris, Rome or Athens).
Beatty has a wide knowledge of European history, and the historical figures she chooses to question are a disparate set of characters, among them the Norman knight Eustace (who she sees as representative of rapacious capitalism), Joan of Arc, Christine de Pisan, Gabriele D'Annunzio, James Joyce, Ariosto (the humanist), Ivo Andric (and those are just the names I remembered). At one point she even converses with a Lake Garda carpione. Many of the places she visits are scenes of great brutality, both ancient and modern, and she draws many parallels between different places and ages, also exploring the roots of what we think of as British, and her final destination, the Aegean island of Chios where she helps in a refugee/migrant camp seems highly symbolic.
The cover alludes to a section on the Camargue and its tradition of bull-running, and how this tradition was maintained and modernised to create the highly stylised show she witnesses.
Ultimately this seems a book with more questions than answers, but the journey is educational and I can see myself thinking about it for some time.
There is very little plot - at the start of the book we meet a writer, disillusioned by Britain and in search of meaning, who is packing up the contents of her London flat in preparation for a journey in which she and her partner (a photographer) plan to travel in a camper van across Europe to Greece and the Cyclades. Along the way she researches the historical figures whose "lost property" she finds in various museums and historic sites and buildings, and many of them come to life, inhabiting the narrative as characters in their own right, who she questions and pits against each other. She largely avoids the more obvious places (so nothing on Paris, Rome or Athens).
Beatty has a wide knowledge of European history, and the historical figures she chooses to question are a disparate set of characters, among them the Norman knight Eustace (who she sees as representative of rapacious capitalism), Joan of Arc, Christine de Pisan, Gabriele D'Annunzio, James Joyce, Ariosto (the humanist), Ivo Andric (and those are just the names I remembered). At one point she even converses with a Lake Garda carpione. Many of the places she visits are scenes of great brutality, both ancient and modern, and she draws many parallels between different places and ages, also exploring the roots of what we think of as British, and her final destination, the Aegean island of Chios where she helps in a refugee/migrant camp seems highly symbolic.
The cover alludes to a section on the Camargue and its tradition of bull-running, and how this tradition was maintained and modernised to create the highly stylised show she witnesses.
Ultimately this seems a book with more questions than answers, but the journey is educational and I can see myself thinking about it for some time.
May 27, 2019
Could I time this review any better considering last night’s elections? In what resembles more a fictional travelogue than a traditional novel, Laura Beatty’s narrator is perplexed by her homeland and embarks on a roadtrip through Europe in an attempt to understand her altered, indifferent Britain. Together with her common law husband, they drive across the continent and along the way encounter various historical figures from poets to philosophers. Lost Property has a sense of the fantastic, as Gabriele d’Annunzio, Ariosto, Joan of Arc, and Herodotus – to name only a few – join the couple’s entourage as actual characters of the story, in constant dialogue with each other.
Beatty’s novel is essentially a meditation on Europe, a re-evaluation of the continent from a British perspective (post-Brexit), drawing on the long history of European arts. This focus on cultural references brings about a rather slow-moving narrative in good and bad: Beatty is clearly erudite, but personally I felt a little bogged down by the loads of information. On the upside, the novel contains some beautiful descriptions of the landscapes of countries you don’t often see in British novels, like Serbia and Bulgaria. In a way, the novel is a timely homage to Europe during these turbulent times, but I’m not completely sure if it makes the most alluring story.
Beatty’s novel is essentially a meditation on Europe, a re-evaluation of the continent from a British perspective (post-Brexit), drawing on the long history of European arts. This focus on cultural references brings about a rather slow-moving narrative in good and bad: Beatty is clearly erudite, but personally I felt a little bogged down by the loads of information. On the upside, the novel contains some beautiful descriptions of the landscapes of countries you don’t often see in British novels, like Serbia and Bulgaria. In a way, the novel is a timely homage to Europe during these turbulent times, but I’m not completely sure if it makes the most alluring story.
March 20, 2021
A Brexit novel whose principal theme is nationalism, a fresh theme for fiction these days. But it’s yet another novel where the first half is far superior to the second half. The first half’s magical mystery tour becomes too much tour (and educational) and less mysterious and fun in the second half. It also becomes preachy, and the narrator becomes more irritating. The quality of the writing is consistent throughout, and there were enough good moments in the second half to keep me reading. A 3.5.
September 12, 2019
Something different. A work sometimes poetic, frequently speculative (not that the two are mutually exclusive), Laura Beatty’s newly released Lost Property is a book that entertains and gratifies on one hand and, otherwise, sets the reader’s mind alert and mulling.
In this fictional work, our narrator is unsettled and about to set off on a road trip from England through Europe to the Greek islands. She and her de facto, Rupert (interestingly, although we have no name for her, we learn his immediately), head out and buy a second-hand motorhome. Personally, I have great difficulty picturing it, fifteen feet by five, more or less. That’s about the size of a Korean sub-micro car. More or less. Thus, at this time, I think I’m about to embark on a comedic venture, but the language never really heads in that direction. Mind you, the story is not entirely bereft of a certain quirky humour.
Approaching Dover, when about to embark on a cross-Channel ferry: "Goodbye then, England. I have no idea what you are. Are you the books that I read or the language I still love?" Is that thought entirely apocryphal, likely to change?
The adventure, utterly unscripted, takes them on a journey covering more than a thousand kilometres and across an even greater historical timespan. It is voyage of discovery passing through more than 8,000 years, intended to help our middle-aged narrator re-establish her purpose in her life. Her other half, Rupert, a tour organiser and photographer, is less unsettled and far more content with his lot.
As they travel, we are introduced to an eclectic range of historical characters, all of whom are interesting in their own right. There is Herodotus, who wrote of the Greco-Persian wars, Joan of Arc, the Maid of Orleans, Gabriele d’Annunzio, Italian poet, soldier and political leader, and a great number more. Where I gained a high level of entertainment from Lost Property was in having characters return from history to travel briefly with our couple and the discussions held. On occasion, where best suited to the story’s direction, more than one character sat with them in the mobile home, connected in open discussion.
Did the trip succeed in its purpose, to help our narrator’s quest to settle her direction, to answer the question – never really asked in so many words – of Brexit and where she and post-Brexit Britain, both unsettled, are headed? I’m not going to answer, as it would be the ultimate spoiler. Instead, I’ll quote a passage towards the end of the book. Our couple is helping refugees in the Greek islands:
"(The refugees) offer hope. They are determinedly constructive… seem to have survived horror and are nice to each other. They are open and they are positive." Our narrator absorbs this and then considers what was spoken to her by Joan of Arc while on the trip across Europe. "In my hurry to distance myself from (England’s) mistakes, perhaps I did walk out on my country."
Perhaps a pointer towards what I wouldn’t tell you earlier?
I thought it an entertaining read, Laura Beatty’s Lost Property, greatly appreciating her historical and literary knowledge. I would recommend it for general readership, but especially to schools as an adjunct to history and English curricula, where I believe it has the capacity to direct young minds in a positive direction and to offer an altered perspective.
In this fictional work, our narrator is unsettled and about to set off on a road trip from England through Europe to the Greek islands. She and her de facto, Rupert (interestingly, although we have no name for her, we learn his immediately), head out and buy a second-hand motorhome. Personally, I have great difficulty picturing it, fifteen feet by five, more or less. That’s about the size of a Korean sub-micro car. More or less. Thus, at this time, I think I’m about to embark on a comedic venture, but the language never really heads in that direction. Mind you, the story is not entirely bereft of a certain quirky humour.
Approaching Dover, when about to embark on a cross-Channel ferry: "Goodbye then, England. I have no idea what you are. Are you the books that I read or the language I still love?" Is that thought entirely apocryphal, likely to change?
The adventure, utterly unscripted, takes them on a journey covering more than a thousand kilometres and across an even greater historical timespan. It is voyage of discovery passing through more than 8,000 years, intended to help our middle-aged narrator re-establish her purpose in her life. Her other half, Rupert, a tour organiser and photographer, is less unsettled and far more content with his lot.
As they travel, we are introduced to an eclectic range of historical characters, all of whom are interesting in their own right. There is Herodotus, who wrote of the Greco-Persian wars, Joan of Arc, the Maid of Orleans, Gabriele d’Annunzio, Italian poet, soldier and political leader, and a great number more. Where I gained a high level of entertainment from Lost Property was in having characters return from history to travel briefly with our couple and the discussions held. On occasion, where best suited to the story’s direction, more than one character sat with them in the mobile home, connected in open discussion.
Did the trip succeed in its purpose, to help our narrator’s quest to settle her direction, to answer the question – never really asked in so many words – of Brexit and where she and post-Brexit Britain, both unsettled, are headed? I’m not going to answer, as it would be the ultimate spoiler. Instead, I’ll quote a passage towards the end of the book. Our couple is helping refugees in the Greek islands:
"(The refugees) offer hope. They are determinedly constructive… seem to have survived horror and are nice to each other. They are open and they are positive." Our narrator absorbs this and then considers what was spoken to her by Joan of Arc while on the trip across Europe. "In my hurry to distance myself from (England’s) mistakes, perhaps I did walk out on my country."
Perhaps a pointer towards what I wouldn’t tell you earlier?
I thought it an entertaining read, Laura Beatty’s Lost Property, greatly appreciating her historical and literary knowledge. I would recommend it for general readership, but especially to schools as an adjunct to history and English curricula, where I believe it has the capacity to direct young minds in a positive direction and to offer an altered perspective.
June 24, 2019
Lost Property is a plotless novel featuring a writer and her partner setting out on a journey across Europe. Along the way, they visit museums, galleries and historical sites. She meets various historical characters from the locality and has lengthy philosophical discourses with them or muses upon them.
This reminds me very much of Robinson In Space, a film shot using still camera angles with tangential narration on the state of Britain. Except, in this case, it was the state of Europe.
The theme, at least as much as I could gather in the third of the book I read, was that there has always been movement throughout Europe and the borders we think of as being fixed have been quite fluid. So we see the permeability of the English channel with kings and nobles passing back and forth. The tangled web of kingship in the 11th Century, for example, having cousins and brothers occupying various thrones, plotting to succeed one another as their kingdoms waxed and waned.
The characters are meant to seem real - with both a human face and a historic face. And if there is a point that is being made, it is that the petty nationalism of Brexit Britain is flying in the face of centuries of Europeanism.
But it makes for a soporific read. The points are made over and over again with no sense of progression, character or fun. Like Robinson In Space, it is all very deadpan.
As I said, I got a third of the way through, reading less and less each time. I got an enormous feeling of relief when I admitted to myself that I was going to set this aside and read something more enjoyable.
This reminds me very much of Robinson In Space, a film shot using still camera angles with tangential narration on the state of Britain. Except, in this case, it was the state of Europe.
The theme, at least as much as I could gather in the third of the book I read, was that there has always been movement throughout Europe and the borders we think of as being fixed have been quite fluid. So we see the permeability of the English channel with kings and nobles passing back and forth. The tangled web of kingship in the 11th Century, for example, having cousins and brothers occupying various thrones, plotting to succeed one another as their kingdoms waxed and waned.
The characters are meant to seem real - with both a human face and a historic face. And if there is a point that is being made, it is that the petty nationalism of Brexit Britain is flying in the face of centuries of Europeanism.
But it makes for a soporific read. The points are made over and over again with no sense of progression, character or fun. Like Robinson In Space, it is all very deadpan.
As I said, I got a third of the way through, reading less and less each time. I got an enormous feeling of relief when I admitted to myself that I was going to set this aside and read something more enjoyable.
May 2, 2020
This is meta fiction - more a travelogue with history and musings thrown in.
The author, disillusioned in Britain following the Brexit outcome, travels with her partner around Europe. On the journey they visit museums and the author talks to historical figures.
It gradually builds up a picture of appropriation, borders in flux and nationalities in constant change.
It highlights the wider picture that time can heal and smooth over the wrongs that men do.
Beatty visits Sarajevo (where I went only last year) and observes the mix of Ottoman and Austrian and reflects on the terrible civil war that was only 25 years ago. She lastly visits Lesbos and volunteers at the refugee camps, describing the conditions and pointing out how conflict continues to alter the make up of populations.
It is a bit of an uneven read - I found a couple of sections lost the focus: one where historical characters started interacting with each other rather than having a dialogue with the author and one where a fictional character appears in the camps.
However, overall, I found it interesting, educational and positive in its conclusions.
The author, disillusioned in Britain following the Brexit outcome, travels with her partner around Europe. On the journey they visit museums and the author talks to historical figures.
It gradually builds up a picture of appropriation, borders in flux and nationalities in constant change.
It highlights the wider picture that time can heal and smooth over the wrongs that men do.
Beatty visits Sarajevo (where I went only last year) and observes the mix of Ottoman and Austrian and reflects on the terrible civil war that was only 25 years ago. She lastly visits Lesbos and volunteers at the refugee camps, describing the conditions and pointing out how conflict continues to alter the make up of populations.
It is a bit of an uneven read - I found a couple of sections lost the focus: one where historical characters started interacting with each other rather than having a dialogue with the author and one where a fictional character appears in the camps.
However, overall, I found it interesting, educational and positive in its conclusions.
December 17, 2020
Our author kind of loses touch with current life in London (after an encounter with a homeless woman) and decides to remedy this by going on a quest. First though she must pack up her worldly possessions for storage. Stuff, baggage and things are of concern to her as she and her partner travel across Europe in a van, examining ancient peoples' things in museums. Anyone who has ever moved and packed up a household can relate to the role of quasi-necessary extraneous items in human's lives. As she travels she also has discussions with many historic/literary figures in a mostly interesting, sometimes muddled way. (One is even a dying fish!)
Always though she is searching for meaning. They end up volunteering in a refugee camp on Lesbos where for example, there are books for a library but quarelling book volunteer factions argue over who should get credit for the books, so all of them are warehoused. No one can use them.
This is very thought provoking and I mostly enjoyed it. I'm pretty sure that I won't be reading Pleasure by D'Annunzio. She's saved me from this.
And the discussion about stuff? It's part of being human after all.
3.5
Birmingham library
Always though she is searching for meaning. They end up volunteering in a refugee camp on Lesbos where for example, there are books for a library but quarelling book volunteer factions argue over who should get credit for the books, so all of them are warehoused. No one can use them.
This is very thought provoking and I mostly enjoyed it. I'm pretty sure that I won't be reading Pleasure by D'Annunzio. She's saved me from this.
And the discussion about stuff? It's part of being human after all.
3.5
Birmingham library
November 15, 2019
This book could have, and should have, been wonderful. A Sebald-esque exploration into present day politics, questions of identity and nationality and the circularity of history via a road trip across Europe - this is exactly the kind of book I love to read. The concept is excellent - the narrator and her husband pick up various historical figures as they drive through Europe, including a couple of my favourites, Joan of Arc and Christine de Pizan, who proffer advice and explanations to the narrator about the current political climate and her loss of self-hood - but the execution is poor. The sentences are clumsy and at times almost impossible to read. The intrusions of historical figures, and long digressions into their story is also done extremely clumsily and actually detracts from, rather than adds to, the story.
April 20, 2023
Took me on a journey and I soon forgot I had picked the book from the fiction section in the library and the journey became real. I started thinking how could the author do her research so thoroughly from a camper van continually on the move? It wasn't until I finished that I looked at the publication date and saw that it is a Brexit novel from 2019 and not contemporary. So not quite a complete reaction to the broken and fracturing Britain today left by 13 years of the current government.
I enjoyed the mix of historical characters coming and going on the journey, with the places travelled through and also brought to life, and with the philosophy and moral argument..... although not really going with the philosophy and morals though I'm not offering anything better.
I enjoyed the mix of historical characters coming and going on the journey, with the places travelled through and also brought to life, and with the philosophy and moral argument..... although not really going with the philosophy and morals though I'm not offering anything better.
May 31, 2024
3.5/5
This was interesting, and engaging, and I really did like Beatty's writing, but it just felt like there was too much happening at once. There were a tide of interesting references and historical figures included--and I did love the way the 'time travel' aspects were incorporated, less time travel and more very active engagement with the past--and I think had the novel been a little longer, had the characters and ideas been given more breathing space, this would have been a more effective novel.
However, there is also a distinct possibility I am just not quite clever enough to understand all of what Beatty was doing.
It's an interesting meditation on nationality and identity and culture, however, and of course interesting in the political climate of the past few years (but also, as Beatty demonstrates, relevant questions since even before the formation of modern nation states. We all want to feel we belong--but to what and how?)
This was interesting, and engaging, and I really did like Beatty's writing, but it just felt like there was too much happening at once. There were a tide of interesting references and historical figures included--and I did love the way the 'time travel' aspects were incorporated, less time travel and more very active engagement with the past--and I think had the novel been a little longer, had the characters and ideas been given more breathing space, this would have been a more effective novel.
However, there is also a distinct possibility I am just not quite clever enough to understand all of what Beatty was doing.
It's an interesting meditation on nationality and identity and culture, however, and of course interesting in the political climate of the past few years (but also, as Beatty demonstrates, relevant questions since even before the formation of modern nation states. We all want to feel we belong--but to what and how?)
May 3, 2019
Disillusioned with contemporary Britain, a writer and her partner buy an old campervan and embark on a road trip through Europe to Greece. The writer’s searching for meaning; her partner’s more content to be. But they’re both particularly interested in the museums that punctuate their journey: he taking photographs; she, when she dares, interrogating the historical figures who come to life along the way.
Full review Novelistic explorations of identity through road trips with magic realism: Lost Property & Bird Summons https://annegoodwin.weebly.com/1/post...
Full review Novelistic explorations of identity through road trips with magic realism: Lost Property & Bird Summons https://annegoodwin.weebly.com/1/post...
December 8, 2019
I was not into this book. It took me a while to work out what was going on, with the historical characters interweaving into the present day. And not being a huge history buff, a lot of the people were lost on me.
I think it's generally a good idea, but I didn't find it was executed very well.
I think it's generally a good idea, but I didn't find it was executed very well.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
December 30, 2019
Didn’t finish this. It drove me completely mad. Really wanted to like it but found it completely pretentious and thoroughly dull. But I think it’s written for a more esoteric brain than mine. Good luck to ‘em.
August 10, 2020
Fantastic but dreadful, in that it filled me with dread and shame. A creative means of discussing Europe's historical precedent for art and violence. Also, involves camping across the continent, and a dialogue with a dying fish. I think this book is a gem.
June 21, 2019
The protagonist of this novel is also going through a process of reassessment, this time of her nationality, nationhood and sense of belonging. Her chosen method is a road trip across continental Europe, through France, northern Italy, the Balkans and Greece. Along the way she visits places of historical interest and 'interrogates' characters from that history.
The book is quirky without being particularly funny. It contains some views of European history which may be new to some people. I liked it, but did not love it.
The book is quirky without being particularly funny. It contains some views of European history which may be new to some people. I liked it, but did not love it.
August 18, 2019
DNF.
Read
November 27, 2019Interesting idea - but the conceit of meeting historical characters as the author travelled around Europe didn't come off.
August 5, 2020
very dense for such a short book, but manages to verbalise some very poignant post-2016 feelings unlike anything else i’ve experienced
Displaying 1 - 18 of 18 reviews