This novel was written as a reflection of real life. That was really important from the start. I didn’t want to think too much about writing into a genre or plotting their story against specific arcs in a writerly way where the primary focus is to leave the reader warm and cosy and satisfied. Avani and Nik’s relationship is very believable, although I did feel a bit irritated with Avani sometimes for failing to open up to him and provide the answers about his father that he so desperately needed. In her maternal protectiveness, she didn’t seem to notice how grown up he actually was. Incredibly moving, this is an immersive novel focusing on grief but also love and relationships. I fell in love with Avani and Nik, characters so real I could hardly believe they're fictional. Jyoti Patel is a hugely exciting new writer.' - Louise Hare, author of This Lovely City and Miss Aldridge Regrets 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.

Nik has lots of questions about his late father but knows better than to ask his mother, Avani. It's their unspoken rule. Guilt drives Maddie, including her numerous bad choices. She still struggles with the death of her friend Gina. Gina died while dating Brian, who was abusive. Brian was also Maddie's ex, so she knew his behaviors. Maddie begins to think "what if" she made different choices. Maddie wakes up, thrown in the past, now living with Jayson, her ex boyfriend. She also learns her friend Gina is still alive. Patel’s novel was published this January following her winning the #Merky Books New Writer’s Prize in April 2021. “It was really a dream come true, even just to be longlisted and shortlisted,” she tells me. “But to win and to have a book deal was just incredible.” I spoke to Patel about The Things That We Lost , feeling othered, and the importance of representing male friendship in fiction. Several events skillfully continue conversations about race, brilliantly illustrating throughout the novel, how this can factor into interracial relationships, movement across the UK, identity, the workplace and culture.PDF / EPUB File Name: The_Things_That_We_Lost_-_Jyoti_Patel.pdf, The_Things_That_We_Lost_-_Jyoti_Patel.epub In The Things That We Lost, Jyoti Patel has given us two fully realised characters in Nik and Avani. Neither mother, Avani, nor son, Nik, are without flaws and both are dealing in their own ways with the grief of losing Elliott, their husband and father respectively. They ultimately need each other but are too busy shutting each other out to see this. For this reason, I loved the grandfather character who worked so hard to get Avani and Nik to open up, make peace and honour the memory of Elliott. Maggie Giles didn’t waste a single word writing this story. Every single thought and action leads to its beautiful unraveling. And, even though she uses an old trope, the story feels fresh and creative. The film was released in the United States and Canada on October 19, 2007 and in the United Kingdom on February 1, 2008. In this book, author Maggie has attempted a spin on a very common question we all have subjected ourselves to atleast once - what if I had done this instead of that? What if I had done things things differently? The principal character of this book Maddie is overcome by this question when her current life isn't what it used to be. She feels neglected by her husband and craves for some attention and love from him. She is also cheating on him and is struggling to come to terms with her conflicting emotions regarding her infraction. Becoming upset with her husband's perceived neglect, she wishes that she had chosen her ex-boyfriend Jayson, with whom she had been cheating her husband, rather than her husband all those years ago.

I really enjoyed the way romance was dealt with in this novel. Avani and Nik both have interactions in the book which could be described as romantic but these never read as cheesy or saccharine to me. I have a very low tolerance for cringe so was grateful for the subtle way Patel included these relationships without them overshadowing other elements of the story.Maddie has made some poor choices in her adult life, and while she loves her children and her husband, she has been unfulfilled for a long time. Her and Nathan have grown apart, and when Maddie meets up with her ex-boyfriend at a conference, her life begins to spiral out of control. She also cannot seem to get past the guilt of her actions that may have contributed to her friend Gina's death years prior. It continues to haunt her, and Maddie wonders what she could have done differently in her life to change this outcome? So there’s a lot going on in this book but it’s not cluttered and not at all writing-course-y, but flows naturally with themes of friendship and family and friendship within family pushing to the fore. There’s a beautiful redemptive moment with an uncle who had seemed to have become almost a cliche, and there’s a very nice dog which doesn’t have anything awful happen to it (phew). We’re not left with all the ends neatly tied, which I liked, but with enough resolution and hope to make it a positive as well as an interesting read. 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. There are other antagonists too, and Avani and Nik aren’t always their best selves. However, you get to know the pair well enough to realise that their behaviour while experiencing a series of significant upheavals isn’t representative of their whole characters. I could particularly identify with their feelings about Rohan’s house, which Avani has to empty and put on the market. In many ways, these characters are a product of all of the people they love and have been loved by. The relationships in their lives define so much of them, particularly at the moment when the reader meets them. I, therefore, didn’t want to home in on one relationship, but rather explore the web of many that surround both Avani and Nik.

It totally transformed my 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! I remember at the time I was listening to podcasts and reading books like The Good Immigrant, Why I’m No Longer Talking to White People About Race . One thing that kept coming up was this idea that we stay in cities because when we go out to very rural towns, we do feel ‘othered’ in some way. I realised I hadn’t seen that experience represented so much in fiction. The reason why I don’t name the town Nik goes to is because I’ve heard so many stories about people who go to [less diverse] uni towns who have experienced the same thing, and I wanted it to be universal. I will have readers say to me, ‘that’s definitely Durham’, ‘that’s definitely Exeter’, ‘that’s definitely Norwich’, ‘that’s definitely Lincoln’. It’s so interesting. Secrets spill and relationships sour, sacrifices are made and promises are broken, as plot twists propel the narrative forward to a dramatic finale.'- The Guardian Other crucial sections are set in 1998 when in less than 2 months Avani loses her strict mother (with who she has a very difficult relationship only partly mediated by her beloved Dad) and before that Elliott in some form of (for much of the book) unspecified incident.I definitely wanted to keep their stories distinct because they’re such different people. It was a lot of fun to play with their voices and switch from the more meditative and nostalgic passages with Avani to the faster-paced dialogue-heavy chapters with Nik. It allowed me to exercise two very different writing muscles. The central theme of this story is that in one timeline, a close friend of hers died while they were at university. In the new timeline, that woman is still alive. There are some circumstances surrounding what happened involving another previous boyfriend that were never really clear to me, even when I got to the end. The story devolved into a weird suspense tale, but it's pretty clear from the start who the culprit is, yet the motivations aren't defined until the end and even at that point, they didn't make much sense to me. Overall, I found this to be an enjoyable, evenly-paced novel with interesting characters exploring a diverse range of issues. This is a book you should curl up with on an evening, a mug of hot (insert beverage of choice) in your hand and just let yourself be carried away by this touching and beautiful story.