Family Breakdown Becomes Comic And Cutting Art
Madeline Cash turns family dysfunction into something funny, painful and vividly alive in this bold literary novel. Sharp-tongued yet compassionate, it will suit readers who like contemporary fiction that can be chaotic, tender and brutally observant all at once.
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Lost Lambs
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Family Breakdown Becomes Comic And Cutting Art
Madeline Cash turns family dysfunction into something funny, painful and vividly alive in this bold literary novel. Sharp-tongued yet compassionate, it will suit readers who like contemporary fiction that can be chaotic, tender and brutally observant all at once.
- Book Synopsis
-
The funny and compassionate new literary novel that turns family dysfunction into an art form.
Early praise:
‘A voice like no other’ — Lena Dunham, award-winning writer, director and creator of comedy-drama Girls
‘Loud, hilarious, shocking and sensitive’ — Megan Nolan, prize-listed author of Acts of Desperation
‘You finish the book with the kind of smile on your face that contemporary fiction rarely leaves you with. Lost Lambs is a perky, fiendishly readable debut.’ — Financial Times
For the three Flynn daughters, it has been disastrous since their parents opened up their marriage. Abigail, the eldest, is dating an ex-soldier several years her senior nicknamed ‘War Crimes Wes’. Louise, the middle child, maintains a secret correspondence with an online terrorist. The brilliant youngest, Harper, is being sent to a wilderness reform camp due to her insistence that someone, or something, is monitoring the town’s citizens.
Casting a shadow across their lives is Paul Alabaster, a nefarious local billionaire. Rumours of corruption circulate, but no one dares dig too deep. No one except Harper, whose obsession with Alabaster’s machinations sends the family hurtling into a criminal conspiracy that may finally bring them closer together.
Rippling with humour, warmth and style, Lost Lambs turns family dysfunction into an art form.
Ideal for readers who:
- Enjoy literary fiction that turns family dysfunction into sharp comedy.
- Are drawn to messy relatives, private damage and public fallout.
- Want a novel that feels loud, funny, painful and emotionally exposed.
- Prefer contemporary fiction with bite, energy and a compassionate edge.
Praise for Lost Lambs:
‘Goes off like a firework. As sincere as it is funny, and it is very funny’ — Ramona Ausubel, bestselling author of The Last Animal
‘A great, great American novel’ — Samantha Hunt, Women’s Prize longlisted author of The Seas
‘A dazzling and singular new voice in literary fiction… Loud, hilarious, shocking, and sensitive’ — Megan Nolan, award-winning author of Ordinary Human Failings
‘With a big surge of energy, Lost Lambs splits the nucleus of the American family’ — Tony Tulathimutte, author of Rejection — National Book Award Finalist
‘Madeline Cash is a humourist in the darkly humanist tradition of George Saunders and Lorrie Moore, of Vonnegut and Twain’ — Tim Kreider, author of We Learn Nothing
‘Immersive and propulsive and I never wanted it to end. I cannot remember the last time a novel made me laugh so hard or feel so much tenderness for its characters… I loved it. I devoured it’ — Leslie Jamison, author of Splinters
- About The Author
- Madeline Cash is the founder of Forever Magazine and the author of the story collection Earth Angel. Her fiction has appeared in Granta, The Baffler, The Sewanee Review, The Drift, and Bomb, among other publications. Lost Lambs is her debut novel.
- Product Details
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- ISBN
- 9781529946130
- Format
- Paperback
- Publisher
- Doubleday, (05 February 2026)
- Number of Pages
- 336
- Weight
- 408 grams
- Language
- English
- Dimensions
- 234 x 153 x 26 mm
- Categories: