Author: Tess Evans
Published: 2010
Publisher: Allen and Unwin
Pages: 368
Source: Own copy
Genres: Contemporary Fiction
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Book of Lost Threads tells the story of Moss, a young woman who runs away from Melbourne (Australia) to the small town of Opportunity on the search for someone. In Opportunity she encounters Finn, a brilliant mathematician and a recluse, Lily Pargetter, an 83 year old knitter of tea cosies for the UN who is also trying to find someone and Sandy, the town joke who is trying to find his place in his own town. The four of them strike up an unlikely friendship which leads them all to evaluate their own lives and find strength in each other.
Book of Lost Threads is Tess Evans' first novel and she is an Australian author. I was very impressed with this as a first novel and I wouldn't have known the author was new to writing if I hadn't read the author profile in the back of the book.
The characters are incredibly likeable and it is very easy to engage with them all. I was trying to think who was my favourite but I couldn't quite decide. I absolutely loved Lily and her dedication to her tea cosies for the UN which is such a great side story, and I really felt great empathy for her suffering such a great loss in her life. But Finn as the town recluse who is battling his own demons and who lived for a time in a monastery is such an intriguing character. And Moss, with her two mothers; Amy and Lindsey deals with situations in a very relateable way.
The beginning of the book pulls you in and sets a steady pace but the story does seem to flounder a little in the middle and lose its way. Thankfully things pick up again and the end ties everything in well. One of my only issues is that some of the smaller supporting characters seem to get thrown in there at the last minute with no apparent cause. Hamish, a friend (and potential love interest) of Moss' seems to just get thrown in from nowhere but doesn't really add anything to the story, along with a few other minor characters living in Opportunity that seem to have more mention in the epilogue then anywhere else in the story so you really can't buy into them at all. Other than that it was an enjoyable light read, a good one to read on holiday or at the beach.
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