“If our sad, brutal, cynical, cowardly, unkind, exhausting world is too much for you, if you’d like to dream instead of a parallel world where love and loyalty and friendship are the magic that transforms the least of us into genuine heroes, then Meg Shaffer’s The Lost Story is the book you’ve been waiting for. And here’s the real magic. When you return from that enchanted place to the world you wanted to escape from, you’ll find it’s changed. Why? Because you have.”—Richard Russo, author of Empire Falls and the North Bath Trilogy
Inspired by C. S. Lewis’s The Chronicles of Narnia, this wild and wondrous novel is a fairy tale for grown-ups who still knock on the back of wardrobes—just in case—from the author of The Wishing Game.
As boys, best friends Jeremy Cox and Rafe Howell vanished in a West Virginia state park, only to mysteriously reappear six months later with no explanation for where they'd gone or how they’d survived.
Fifteen years after their miraculous homecoming, Jeremy is a famous missing persons investigator with an uncanny ability to find the lost, while Rafe is a reclusive artist unable to stop creating otherworldly paintings and sculptures he shows to no one. He bears scars inside and out from his disappearance but has no memory of what happened while they were gone.
Jeremy alone knows the fantastical truth behind their time in the woods. While the rest of the world was searching for them, the two missing boys were in a magical realm filled with impossible beauty and terrible danger. However, Jeremy has kept Rafe in the dark since their return for his own inscrutable reasons.
But the time for burying secrets comes to an end when vet tech Emilie Wendel hires Jeremy to find her long-lost sister . . . the long-lost sister he and Rafe knew while living in that hidden kingdom. Now the former lost boys must confront their shared past, no matter how traumatic the memories. Alongside the headstrong Emilie, Rafe and Jeremy return to the enchanted world they called home for six months . . . for only then can they get back everything and everyone they’ve lost.
READ THE LOUISVILLE COURIER-JOURNAL ARTICLE ON MEG SHAFFER AND THE STORY BEHIND THE LOST STORY!
Ballantine and Penguin Random House Audio (US/Can)
Jo Fletcher Books/Quercus (UK/Aus)
352 Pages • Hardcover/eBook/Audio
HC ISBN 978-0593598870
UK/Aus HC ISBN 978-1529436310
Large Print Edition Forthcoming
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“Shaffer speaks to every reader who yearns for a more magical world.”—Thao Thai, author of Banyan Moon
“Swoon-worthy LGBTQ romantasy reads.” — Book Riot
“Can you feel nostalgic about a book you just read? Apparently yes, if it reminds you of when you were a child who believed in magic. Like any fairy tale, there is darkness, but only enough to make the light more brilliant.” — Laura Kendall, Second Flight Books
“This soothing novel will appeal to fans of classic and portal fantasies, where other fantastic worlds are lying under our own, just waiting to be discovered.” — Booklist
“A spiritual epilogue to C.S. Lewis’ The Chronicles of Narnia, Meg Shaffer’s The Lost Story explores what happens after you return from a magical realm.” — Bookpage (starred review)
“Reading The Lost Story reminded me of being a kid, and of the many hours I spent immersed in magical faraway worlds. Inspired by the classic Narnia novels, Meg Shaffer’s second novel is both a fairytale for grown-ups and a love story. Recommended reading for anyone seeking to reawaken a sense of wonder.” — Jude Burke-Lewis, Square Books
“Readers will find this an absolutely immersive pleasure to read. Shaffer delivers an unforgettable and nostalgic experience.” — Library Journal (starred review)
“Shaffer manages to capture the joys and magic of childhood innocence alongside the wisdom that comes with age and the heartache and scars that make it difficult to go home again. [A] love letter to the fantasy genre…. Readers will be transfixed.” — Publishers Weekly (starred review)
“A potential replacement for The Magicians, offering a similar dark and adult take on a beloved fantasy world.” — ScreenRant
“A love letter to the Mountain State.” — The Herald-Dispatch
“There’s a fundamental psychology at the heart of this book that is its biggest triumph. And it sits perfectly alongside its central mystery—unspooled with cheerful self-awareness and a lot of wit.” — SFX
“Meg Shaffer has created a story that’s easy to enjoy and rich in wit, compassion and wonder.” — ParSec