The Book of Lost and Found

by Lucy Foley

For all this, he and the house are handsome: in an order in which handsomeness is equated with a projection of power, authority and utter conviction.

Alice has wondered whether the temperature in the rooms is affected by the artefacts themselves—wondered if they carry with them some memory of the cold earth in which they were buried for so long.

Even so… I cannot help feeling that a young woman of your age and talent should not be rattling around on her own in a big house full of memories.”

Because, if the nature of the work is right, there is great reward to be found. The feeling that one has a place in the world, that one is useful in some small way, is not to be underrated.

That word—spoken so lightly. And yes, like a powerful, yet subtle, incantation, it has worked its inevitable magic, caused everything to shift.

The marked indifference of her tone is a clear sign of her special interest in him.

She must treat these memories lightly so as not to sully or bruise them, like all delicate things that are damaged with too much handling.

It is that I don’t want you to see me as a victim, someone who stopped living when I lost the person I loved. To do so, when I had survived something that had claimed so many, would have been a terrible, selfish thing. In many ways, my life has been rather like a record of the lost and found. Perhaps all lives are like that. Lost: love; found: independence. Lost: a daughter; found: a granddaughter.” I felt something expand inside me at this, almost a pain—but of the best sort.