The Keeper of Lost Things by Ruth Hogan

The other week when I finished The Keeper of Stories , I thought – hmm there’s a book with a similar title somewhere on my shelves. Found it, The Keeper of Lost Things.

This novel came out in 2017 to high praise from many book bloggers and book tubers. Yet, somehow it got put on the shelf, as yet unread.

Anthony Peardew is a finder and keeper of lost things. Having lost something he once held dear, he knows all too well the pain of dispossession. In fact, his experience with loss in general runs deep. So he collects random objects—often meaningless to others—and imagines what they once meant to their owners. He gives these things a home in his cluttered but lovely London house – called Padua. He catalogs the exact place and moment he found each item in hopes to one day reunite them with their rightful owner.

Lime green plastic flower-shaped hair bobbles—Found, on the playing field, Derrywood Park, 2nd September.

Bone china cup and saucer—Found, on a bench in Riveria Public Gardens, 31st October.

Now, in the twilight of his life, Anthony worries that he has not fully discharged his duty to reconcile all the lost things with their owners. As the end nears, he bequeaths his secret life’s mission to his unsuspecting assistant, Laura, leaving her his house and and all its lost treasures, including an irritable ghost.

Recovering from an ugly divorce, Laura, in some ways, is one of Anthony’s lost things. But when she moves into his mansion, her life begins to change. She finds a new friend in the neighbor’s Downs Syndrome daughter, Sunshine (a sensitively developed character) and a welcome distraction in Freddy, the gardener. As Laura regains her footing and starts to recover from her own loss, she and her new companions, set out to realize Anthony’s last wish: reuniting his cherished lost objects with their owners.

There are two plot-timelines: 40 years earlier, Eunice found a trinket on the London pavement and kept it through the years. Now, with her own end drawing near, she has lost something precious—a twist of fate that forces her to break a promise she once made.

Both timelines were engaging, but scattered throughout the novel are Arthur’s stories about some of the found objects — a real treat.

Fair warning many found The Keeper of Lost Things trite and saccharine and yes, it is an old-fashioned novel, with manners and decorum — maybe it was my mood, but I found it enchanting and a lovely escape from reality.

Anthony had made her tea at the interview. He had brought it into the garden room; teapot with cozy, milk jug, sugar bowl and tongs, cups and saucers, silver teaspoons, tea strainer and stand.
All set out on a tray with a tray cloth. Pure white, lace –edged linen. The tray cloth was definitive. Padua was clearly a house where all these things, including the tray cloth, were part of every day life.

The novel starts out slowly and it takes a few chapters before things start to get interesting, stick with it my friends – it’s a lovely read. And despite my current obsession with clearing out “stuff” and “things”, it did remind me of the significance of the objects we love and care for. I’ll cheat here and quote another reviewer which sums up this book nicely:

A charming, clever, and quietly moving novel of of endless possibilities and joyful discoveries that explores the promises we make and break, losing and finding ourselves, the objects that hold magic and meaning for our lives, and the surprising connections that bind us.

N.B. There is a great deal of tea drinking which Sunshine carefully makes and names “the lovely cup of tea” — a gentle hug throughout.