I love a book that has a great quote at the start and a wonderful opening line.  The Keeper of Lost Things by Ruth Hogan has both those.

“Charles Bramwell Brockley was travelling alone and without a ticket on the 14.42 from London Bridge to Brighton”.

As I said in the “About Us” section, I don’t often read the most fashionable books, and so as this has received a lot of publicity, it wasn’t really on my radar.  My mum recommended I try this and I’m really glad I did!

It is a really gentle read, and utterly charming.

Ruth Hogan weaves beautiful relationships between her characters without being saccharine sweet. I enjoyed the portrayal of Sunshine particularly – it is refreshing to see a character with Downs Syndrome portrayed without her additional needs being the major facet of her character.

Moving between time periods seamlessly, the author weaves a competent spell of interwoven relationships and objects without leaving the reader confused.  At times you have to suspend belief just a touch at the enormity of coincidence, but the book didn’t suffer for that.  It is rare to find pure escapism where you don’t need to take a flight of fancy; in fact it is rather enjoyable at times and this book is certainly no exception.

A story of love and loss, but without the typical feel, I look forward to reading more by Ruth Hogan.  What a debut novel!

I mentioned the wonderful quote at the beginning of this novel, for those interested, it is by the inimitable Anne Brontë.

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