The Things That We Lost

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The Things We Lost is a thoughtful book that gave me all the feels, and if you know me, you know how much I love an emotional read. I am guilty of asking for that reset button, but what if it comes at an extreme cost? Maybe there’s a different answer to that question that lies within us all. Loved this! When Nik’s grandfather dies a chain of events begin that change the life of his grandson Nik and Nik’s relationship with his mother Avani forever. Family secrets and long hidden memories are uncovered. Nik’s father Elliott died before he was born. Will Nik finally learn who his father was and what happened to him all those years ago?

The Things That We Lost is Jyoti Patel's debut novel and was the winner of the #Merky Books New Writers' Prize 2021 and is a perceptive, thought-provoking exploration of growing up as a person of colour in Britain – both in the present day and a few decades ago. Jyoti Patel also movingly examines universal themes which will be familiar to anybody who has experienced loss, especially of the sudden kind. The Things That We Have Lost" follows the lives of mother & son, Avani & Nikhil. Following the devastating loss of their beloved Dad/Grandad, secrets from Avani's past stirs up a desire within Nikhil to learn more about his deceased father, much to Avani's dismay. The story is told over the course of the 80s, early 90s & the present day. The reader is taken through the whirlwind of Avani's teenage years, her marriage, the untimely death of her husband, her grief & the loss of her father. Avani's story is beautifully interwoven with Nikhil's story which is essentially a coming of age story; The difficulties of navigating race, belonging, grief, mental health & relationships. Maddie Butler has been haunted for fourteen years. After the suspicious death of a friend when she was twenty-two, Maddie tried to move on, convincing herself there was nothing she could have done. Now in an unfulfilling marriage, she realizes how much the guilt has led to an unhappy life.The thing that really stood out for me in this book is Patel's representation of second - and third generation 'immigrant' families and mixed-race relationships in contemporary London; something that we haven't really seen enough of in literature given the prevalence of people in London (the setting of this book) with our vast array of varied inheritances and the mixing pot of our friendship groups from school onwards. Claudia Puig (2007-10-19). "Del Toro, Berry anchor 'Things We Lost' ". USA Today . Retrieved 2007-10-27.

Maddie is a woman in her thirties, an author and a mother whose marriage seems to be falling apart. She goes to bed one night consumed with guilt over the betrayal she has committed. However, she wakes up the next day ten years younger, with a man in her bed who is not her husband and her two little girls never born. She has to learn to adapt to this new reality and bear the consequences of it. I requested this debut novel by Jyoti Patel, who won the #Merky Books New Writers’ Prize in 2021, attracted by its themes of family and identity. Although it centres on a young person, it’s not one of those struggling millennials novels but a story about generations and the stories they tell or don’t tell. It did not disappoint, and reminded me of Sairish Hussain’s “ The Family Tree” or Kasim Ali’s “ Good Intentions” with their multicultural and university settings. This book is at heart an exploration of two things – grief and growing up in a multicultural family. Where there are families there are stories and where there are stories there are always secrets. It’s ripe crop for a writer. In literature, these are a staple of the coming-of-age novel. Family secrets seem to rise to the surface when a protagonist steps from childhood into adulthood, in that equally devastating and freeing moment of realising that one exists both within a family and outside of it, too.The story is told from two perspectives: Avani and Nik through a dual timeline. In the past we meet a young Avani and are given an insight into Avani’s relationship with her own mother and how she met Elliott. In the present Nik is trying to uncover the truth about his family but also live his own life. The post prologue open chapter has Nik visiting his dying grandfather (Avani’s father) in hospital before his death – his grandfather gives him a key to something that he has kept for Nik for years, but is reluctant to discuss Elliott, suggesting instead Nik speaks to Chand. I examine the overt racism in Britain in the 1970s and ‘80s and juxtapose that with the quiet micro-aggressions and rise of outright racism too in the wake of the Brexit referendum. I wanted to explore if things have really changed, and how. Jyoti Patel: I certainly did. I went from living the majority of my life in London with a very diverse group of friends, to being in a town where the first thing people seem to notice about me was the colour of my skin. I didn't know how to really respond to that, because I feel like there’s so much more to me than just my Indian heritage. I’m very proud of being Gujarati, but it’s just one of many parts of me.