Lost : A Novel

In This Third Novel By The Acclaimed Bestselling Author Of Wicked And Confessions Of An Ugly Stepsister, Famed Children's Book Author Winifred Rudge Travels To London To Research A Book About A Woman Who Is Being Haunted By Jack The Ripper. Winifred Rudge, A Bemused Writer Struggling To Get Beyond The Runaway Success Of Her Mass-market Astrology Book, Travels To London To Jump-start Her New Novel About A Woman Who Is Being Haunted By The Ghost Of Jack The Ripper. Upon Her Arrival, She Finds That Her Stepcousin And Old Friend John Comestor Has Disappeared, And A Ghostly Presence Seems To Have Taken Over His Home. Is The Spirit Winnie's Great-great-grandfather, Who, Family Legend Claims, Was Charles Dickens's Childhood Inspiration For Ebenezer Scrooge? Could It Be The Ghostly Remains Of Jack The Ripper? Or A Phantasm Derived From A More Arcane And Insidious Origin? Winnie Begins To Investigate And Finds Herself The Unwilling Audience For A Drama Of Specters And Shades -- Some From Her Family's Peculiar History And Some From Her Own Unvanquished Past. In The Spirit Of A.s. Byatt's Possession, With Dark Echoing Overtones Of A Christmas Carol, Lost Presents A Rich Fictional World That Will Enrapture Its Readers. Gregory Maguire ; [illustrations By Douglas Smith]. Includes An Excerpt From Son Of A Witch. Includes 'readers' Discussion Guide'. At the flat in Weatherall Walk there was no milk in the fridge, no ice in the tiny freezer unit.... The better furniture was hung over with drop cloths, the leather-bound books evacuated from their shelves.... Unconnected wiring threaded from walls, and a smell of lazy drains, something rotting, unfurled from the sewer all the way up to this flat. Winnie wrenched open a window. But no sign of John? Winifred Rudge, a bemused writer struggling to get beyond the runaway success of her mass-market astrology book, travels to London to jump-start her new novel about a woman who is being haunted by the ghost of Jack the Ripper. Upon her arrival, she finds that her stepcousin and old friend John Comestor has disappeared, and a ghostly presence seems to have taken over his apartment in the nineteenth-century rowhouse once owned by Winnie's great-great-grandfather. Is it the spirit of this ancestor, who, family legend claims, was Charles Dickens's childhood inspiration for Ebenezer Scrooge? Could it be the ghostly remains of Jack the Ripper? Or a phantasm derived from a more arcane and insidious origin? Winnie begins to investigate, but John's erstwhile girlfriend, Allegra, is aggressively unhelpful, and his downstairs neighbor, the cat-obsessed Mrs. Maddingly, is growing stranger by the day. Gripped by inspiration and desperation alike, Winnie finds herself the unwilling audience for a drama of specters and shades, some from her family's peculiar history and some from her own unvanquished past. In the spirit of A. S. Byatt's Possession , with dark overtones echoing from A Christmas Carol , Lost presents a rich fictional world that will enrapture Gregory Maguire's eager audience.

E-book extras: The full text of A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens; reading group guide.

Winifred Rudge, a bemused writer struggling to get beyond the runaway success of her mass-market astrology book, travels to London to jump-start her new novel about a woman who is being haunted by the ghost of Jack the Ripper.

Publishers Weekly

Maguire's brilliantly imaginative tale of a novelist haunted by the unsettled spirits of Jack the Ripper, Ebenezer Scrooge and her very own past is brought to life by narrator Jenny Sterlin. An experienced children's fiction narrator, Sterlin brings an air of the fantastic and otherworldly to this supernatural tale. With her classically trained British accent the story becomes a fairy tale of sorts. Sterlin's superb reading guides listeners through the gloomy atmosphere of Maguire's London. With a large cast of murky and mysterious Londoners to voice, Sterlin provides a variety of grainy dialects and accents that help define each individually. Sterlin knows how to get and hold one's attention, and her sharp and often menacing tone demands the audience's consideration at every crucial and thrilling plot twist. Playing this audiobook with the lights down low on a blustery winter night is sure to spark the imaginations of listeners of all ages. A Harper paperback (Reviews, Sept. 10, 2001). (Nov.)

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E-book extras: The full text of A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens; reading group guide.Winifred Rudge, a bemused writer struggling to get beyond the runaway success of her mass-market astrology book, travels to London to jump-start her new novel about a woman who is being haunted by the ghost of Jack the Ripper. Upon her arrival, she finds that her stepcousin and old friend John Comestor has disappeared, and a ghostly presence seems to have taken over his home. Is the spirit Winnie's great-great-grandfather, who, family legend claims, was Charles Dickens's childhood inspiration for Ebenezer Scrooge? Could it be the ghostly remains of Jack the Ripper? Or a phantasm derived from a more arcane and insidious origin? Winnie begins to investigate and finds herself the unwilling audience for a drama of specters and shades -- some from her family's peculiar history and some from her own unvanquished past.In the spirit of A. S. Byatt's Possession, with dark echoing overtones of A Christmas Carol, Lost presents a rich fictional world that will enrapture its readers. “A brilliant, perceptive, and deeply moving fable.” —Boston Sunday Globe Publishers Weekly calls Gregory Maguire's Lost “a deftly written, compulsively readable modern-day ghost story.” Brilliantly weaving together the literary threads of J.M. Barrie's Peter Pan, Charles Dickens's A Christmas Carol, and the Jack the Ripper stories, the bestselling author of The Wicked Years canon creates a captivating fairy tale for the modern world. With Lost, Maguire—who re-imagined a darker, more dangerous Oz, and inspired the creation of the Tony Award-winning Broadway blockbuster Wicked—delivers a haunting tale of shadows and phantoms and things going bump in the night, confirming his reputation as “one of contemporary fiction's most assured myth-makers” (Kirkus Reviews). Winifred Rudge attempts to write a novel about a woman haunted by the ghost of Jack the Ripper, and finds herself the object of spectral phenomena as she arrives in London to find her friend John missing under mysterious circumstances