The Lost Properties of Love
Love affairs, grief, unhappiness, the mess at the bottom of your handbag. This is a book about the things we hide from other people, and how we might find new ways to think about love and intimacy in the twenty-first century.
How do you learn to be a grown-up when you’ve never got over the death of a parent? What makes a ‘happy family’? What happens if you can’t stop thinking about an ex? And what does commitment really mean?
In this genre-defying memoir, Sophie Ratcliffe travels through time, space and great literature to capture the complex and often messy nature of life, love – and grief. Beautifully crafted, painfully funny and frank about things that most people keep to themselves, The Lost Properties of Love is a game-changing exploration of the human heart.
”'An ingeniously constructed tribute to messy relationships” - Prospect Magazine, Best Biographies and Memoirs of 2019
”'Booksellers needn't fret about where to shelve this limpid, funny, haunting meditation on love, loss and parenting: just put it on your best tables and watch it fly” - Patrick Gale
”'Magnificent… The Lost Properties of Love is glorious on the journeys of life, love and loss, stirringly intimate, deeply painful, occasionally hilarious. It deserves to do brilliantly.” - Philippe Sands, author of East West Street
”'Deeply moving … Sophie Ratcliffe has rummaged in her heart and produced a memoir of books, trains, love and grief. If you have ever lost an umbrella, an earring or someone close to you, you have found your book.” - Andy Miller, author of The Year of Reading Dangerously
”'A mesmerising book about the messiness of life, love and marriage, and the pain of losing the one you love … raw, truthful, witty and occasionally sublime.” - Paula Byrne, bestselling author of The Real Jane Austen
”'Sophie Ratcliffe brings a breathtaking honesty and a cool precision to her imaginative meditation on the lessons of Anna Karenina - it is a true tour de force which is both moving and exhilarating to read.” - Rosamund Bartlett, author of Tolstoy: A Life and the translator of Anna Karenina
”'A lovely, intricate book and devastatingly honest. I think every truthful person will find themselves mirrored here.” - Craig Raine
'Wonderful and highly individual … The pages crackle with her cleverness and she has a genius for concision … Witty and original, but also human.' Spectator -
”'A compelling and very honest book. At times it made me think of Tracey Emin’s bed! So many of the details and detritus of a life arranged in a work of art.” - Neil Tennant musician and co-founder of the Pet Shop Boys
”'An intricate, fiercely intelligent memoir.” - Observer