The Lost Story

Meg Shaffer's The Lost Story is one of those extraordinary novels that nestles its way right into your heart. With all the elements we love in a timeless tale-mystery, adventure, romance, a lushly beautiful setting-this wildly imaginative book speaks to every reader who yearns for a world more magical than any they've experienced. Shaffer's warm and wry prose lures a reader right in, inviting them into a land where unlikely heroes and villains roam, where unfinished stories might finally find their endings. If you've ever been lost-and haven't we all?-The Lost Story will make you feel as if you've come home - Thao Thai, author of Banyan Moon

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

Readers will find this an absolutely immersive pleasure to read. Shaffer delivers an unforgettable and nostalgic experience, especially for fans of The Chronicles of Narnia by C.S. Lewis or fairy-tale retellings - Library Journal (starred)

Meg Shaffer's The Lost Story is a gorgeously wrought tale of yearning, grief and hope . . . Layered atop it all, a delicious smattering of meta-narrative keeps the story feeling less like a tragedy and more like the warmhearted fairy tale that it is, reminding us that there is likely a happy ending (at least of sorts) waiting for us at the end of it all - BookPage (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. The taut mystery keeps the pages of this love letter to the fantasy genre flying. Readers will be transfixed - Publishers Weekly (starred review)

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 - Southern Book Review

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