Elizabeth is Missing

Emma Healey

Jun 2014 · Penguin UK

About this eBook

NOW A MAJOR BBC DRAMA
A SUNDAY TIMES TOP FIVE BESTSELLER

How do you solve a mystery when you can't remember the clues?

Maud is forgetful. She makes a cup of tea and doesn't remember to drink it. She goes to the shops and forgets why she went. Sometimes her home is unrecognizable - or her daughter Helen seems a total stranger.

But there's one thing Maud is sure of: her friend Elizabeth is missing. The note in her pocket tells her so. And no matter who tells her to stop going on about it, to leave it alone, to shut up, Maud will get to the bottom of it.

Because somewhere in Maud's damaged mind lies the answer to an unsolved seventy-year-old mystery. One everyone has forgotten about.

Everyone, except Maud . . .

Winner of the Costa First Novel Award
Shortlisted for National Book Awards Popular Fiction Book
Shortlisted for National Book Awards New Writer of the Year
Longlisted for the Dylan Thomas Prize
Longlisted for the Baileys Prize for Women's Fiction

'A thrillingly assured, haunting and unsettling novel, I read it at a gulp' Deborah Moggach, author of The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel

'Elizabeth Is Missing will stir and shake you: the most likeably unreliable of narrators, real mystery at its compassionate core...' Emma Donoghue, author of Room

'Resembling a version of Memento written by Alan Bennett' Daily Telegraph

'One of those mythical beasts, the book you cannot put down' Jonathan Coe, author of The Rotters Club

'Every bit as compelling as the frenzied hype suggests. Gripping, haunting' Observer

Ratings and reviews

It had my attention from the first page; a sharply poignant first hand account of a woman struggling to make sense of the world around her as she loses her memories and words. A cleverly woven story, in which a post-war drama and a present day puzzle meld seamlessly in the narrators' perception of reality. Very moving.

This will resonate with all who have spent time with elderly people, especially relatives. It cleverly gives insight into thoughts and perceptions of an 'older' mind and knits together seemingly random conversations. Poignant.

Beautiful, sad, engaging story of life, memories, love and the heartache of losing someone both in body and mind. The challenges of age combined with unanswered questions from long ago, keep readers enthralled... brilliant.

About the author

Emma Healey grew up in London and completed her first degree in bookbinding. She then worked for libraries, bookshops, art galleries and universities before studying for the MA in Creative Writing at UEA in 2010. She is the author of Whistle in the Dark, and Elizabeth is Missing, which was a Sunday Times Bestseller, won the Costa First Novel Award 2014, and was made into a BBC film starring Glenda Jackson. She lives in Norwich with her husband, daughter and cat, and regularly volunteers for Vision Norfolk with a group of visually impaired, and incredibly imaginative, creative writers.