Lost Lambs

The funny and compassionate new literary novel that turns family dysfunction into an art form.

‘Goes off like a firework. As sincere as it is funny (and it’s very funny)’ Ramona Ausubel, bestselling author of The Last Animal

‘A voice like no other… will shift the way you see the family and community into something operatic, strange and profound.’ Lena Dunham, award-winning writer, director and creator of comedy-drama Girls

The Flynns are not alright.

It’s been disastrous since Bud and Catherine opened up their marriage, and none of the Flynns can remember the last time a meal was cooked, a load of laundry done, or a social code abided by.

Their daughters spiral in their own chaotic orbits: Abigail, the eldest, is dating a man in his twenties nicknamed War Crime Wes; Louise, the middle child, maintains a secret correspondence with an online terrorist; the brilliant youngest, Harper, is being sent to wilderness reform camp due to her insistence that someone – or something – is monitoring the town’s citizens.

Casting a shadow across their lives, and their small coastal town, is Paul Alabaster, a nefarious local billionaire. Rumours of corruption circulate, but no one dares dig too deep. No one except Harper, whose obsession with Alabaster’s machinations sends the family hurtling into a criminal conspiracy – one that may just, finally, bring them closer together.

Rippling with humour, warmth and style, Lost Lambs offers a stunning portrait of the perverse pleasures and perils of our most intimate reality: our family.

Praise for Lost Lambs:

‘A great, great American novel’ Samantha Hunt, Women’s Prize Shortlisted author of The Seas

‘A dazzling and singular new voice in literary fiction… Loud, hilarious, shocking, and sensitive’ Megan Nolan, award-winning author of Ordinary Human Failings

‘With a big surge of energy, Lost Lambs splits the nucleus of the American family’ Tony Tulathimutte, author of Rejection – National Book Award Finalist

‘Madeline Cash is a humourist in the darkly humanist tradition of George Saunders and Lorrie Moore, of Vonnegut and Twain’ Tim Kreider, author of We Learn Nothing

‘Immersive and propulsive and I never wanted it to end. I can’t remember the last time a novel made me laugh so hard or feel so much tenderness for its characters… I loved it. I devoured it’ Leslie Jamison, author of Splinters