''What Was Lost'' is the 2007

début novel A debut novel is the first novel a novelist publishes. Debut novels are often the author's first opportunity to make an impact on the publishing industry, and thus the success or failure of a debut novel can affect the ability of the author to pu ...

Catherine O'Flynn Catherine O'Flynn (born 1970) is a British writer. She has published three novels for adults, and two for children as well as various articles and short stories. Her debut novel, '' What Was Lost'', won the prestigious first novel prize at the Cos ...

. The novel is about a girl who goes missing in a

shopping centre A shopping center (American English) or shopping centre (Commonwealth English), also called a shopping complex, shopping arcade, shopping plaza or galleria, is a group of shops built together, sometimes under one roof. The first known collec ...

in 1984, and the people who try to discover what happened to her twenty years later. ''What Was Lost'' won the First Novel Award at the 2007

Costa Book Awards The Costa Book Awards were a set of annual literary awards recognising English-language books by writers based in UK and Ireland. Originally named the Whitbread Book Awards from 1971 to 2005 after its first sponsor, the Whitbread company, then ...

, and was short-listed for the overall Costa Book of the Year Award.Brown, Mark, 2008-01-03
Dogged postie wins first novel prize
''Guardian''.

Development of the novel

O'Flynn found inspiration for ''What Was Lost'' while she was working as an assistant manager in a record shop. She found ideas for her book from her job in the

Merry Hill Shopping Centre Merry Hill (formerly Westfield Merry Hill and The Merry Hill Shopping Centre) is a large shopping complex in Brierley Hill near Dudley, England. It was developed between 1985 and 1990, with several subsequent expansion and renovation projects ...

near

Dudley Dudley is a large market town and administrative centre in the county of West Midlands, England, southeast of Wolverhampton and northwest of Birmingham. Historically an exclave of Worcestershire, the town is the administrative centre of the ...

in the

West Midlands West or Occident is one of the four cardinal directions or points of the compass. It is the opposite direction from east and is the direction in which the Sun sets on the Earth. Etymology The word "west" is a Germanic word passed into some ...

.Alberge, Dalya, 2008-01-03
Rejected author has last laugh
''Times''. ''What Was Lost'' was rejected by 20 agents and publishers before being accepted for publication by

Tindal Street Press Tindal Street Press was a Birmingham-based independent publisher of contemporary literary fiction, with a particular focus on writers born, or living, in Birmingham and the West Midlands. According to its website, it was "a publicly funded organi ...

, a small

Birmingham Birmingham ( ) is a city and metropolitan borough in the metropolitan county of West Midlands in England. It is the second-largest city in the United Kingdom with a population of 1.145 million in the city proper, 2.92 million in the West ...

publisher.

Plot summary

''What Was Lost'' is a mystery story about a missing girl. It is also a portrait of a changing community over twenty years.Anderson, Hephzibah, 2007-01-27
Now you see her, now you don't
''Guardian''. It examines modern life's emptiness, and society's obsession with shopping.
2008-01-03, CBC. ''What Was Lost'' is set in the city of Birmingham, England. The main events of the novel take place in Green Oaks shopping centre. The first part of the novel is set in 1984. A 10-year-old girl called Kate Meaney frequently plays in the newly opened Green Oaks. She pretends to be a detective, observing and following people. She carries her toy monkey Mickey and a notebook with her. Kate vanishes and Adrian, the 22-year-old son of a newsagent, is the prime suspect in her disappearance. He is hounded by the press and the police. Unable to handle the pressure, he disappears.Orange Broadband Prize for Fiction.
/ref> The novel's narrative moves forward to 2004. Kurt is a security guard at Green Oaks. He has a sleeping disorder. Lisa is the deputy manager of a music store. She is unhappy because of the strange behaviour of her colleagues and customers and because of her relationship with her partner. She becomes friends with Kurt. A girl holding a soft toy is seen in a

CCTV Closed-circuit television (CCTV), also known as video surveillance, is the use of video cameras to transmit a signal to a specific place, on a limited set of monitors. It differs from broadcast television in that the signal is not openly t ...

security monitor. Kurt and Lisa follow the girl through Green Oaks and investigate how she is connected to Green Oaks' unsettling history. It is revealed that both Kurt and Lisa have connections to the case of the missing girl.March 2007 - What Was Lost
BBC - Five Live.

Awards and nominations

''What Was Lost'' was the winner in the first novel category of the Costa Book Awards. O'Flynn received a £5,000 prize.Costa Book Award list announced
2008-01-02, BBC. It was short-listed for the overall Costa Book of the Year Award. The Costa Book Awards' judging panel, chaired by

Joanna Trollope Joanna Trollope (; born 9 December 1943) is an English writer. She has also written under the pseudonym of Caroline Harvey. Her novel ''Parson Harding's Daughter'' won in 1980 the Romantic Novel of the Year Award by the Romantic Novelists' Asso ...

, praised the novel for "blending humour and pathos in a cleverly constructed and absorbing mystery." They described the novel as inventive, compelling, and poignant. ''What Was Lost'' was long-listed for the 2007

Man Booker Prize The Booker Prize, formerly known as the Booker Prize for Fiction (1969–2001) and the Man Booker Prize (2002–2019), is a literary prize awarded each year for the best novel written in English and published in the United Kingdom or Ireland. ...

and the

Orange Prize for Fiction The Women's Prize for Fiction (previously with sponsor names Orange Prize for Fiction (1996–2006 and 2009–12), Orange Broadband Prize for Fiction (2007–08) and Baileys Women's Prize for Fiction (2014–2017)) is one of the United Kingdom's m ...

. It was short-listed for the

Guardian First Book Award The Guardian First Book Award was a literary award presented by ''The Guardian'' newspaper. It annually recognised one book by a new writer. It was established in 1999, replacing the Guardian Fiction Award or Guardian Fiction Prize that the newspap ...

. It won the Jelf Group First Novel Award for which O'Flynn received a prize of £2,500. It was

BBC Radio 5 Live BBC Radio 5 Live is a British national radio station owned and operated by the BBC that broadcasts mainly news, sport, discussion, interviews and phone-ins. It is the principal BBC radio station covering sport in the United Kingdom, broadcast ...

's Book of the Month in March 2007.Flood, Alison, 2007-10-31
O'Flynn wins Jelf Group award
theBookseller.com.

References

{{reflist

External links

2007 British novels British mystery novels Novels set in Birmingham, West Midlands Fiction set in 1984 Fiction set in 2004 2007 debut novels Novels about missing people Novels set in the 1980s Novels set in the 2000s