John Purcell's Reviews > Lost lambs

I received a review copy of Lost Lambs' from the publisher and picked it up on the strength of the cover knowing nothing about the book or the author. It turns out to be a debut, and a brilliant one at that.

Centred on the dysfunctional Flynn family, Bud, Catherine and their three unforgettable daughters, Harper, Louise and Abigail, author Madeline Cash embodies each in their turn, indulging us with rich, abundant, ornate, full-bodied vignettes building a baroque picture of the family and the town in which they live. It is delicious, moreish stuff that sustains the novel and us as it builds momentum.

Though written by an American and set on the east coast, Lost Lambs reminded me of some Irish novels I have read and felt far more in the European tradition of literature than the American. Madeline Cash comes across as an old soul with her finger on the pulse of this present moment, as happy to allude to centuries old moral conundrums as last week's meme. I enjoyed this novel immensely and could have kept reading about the Flynn family indefinitely, and I think Cash could have kept on serving up delicious abundant morsels for me to devour ad infinitum, but it wasn't to be.

Sooner or later the needs of modern publishing will intrude upon the imaginations of even the best writers and bully them into manufacturing a plot and a neat and tidy, though largely unsatisfactory, ending within the range of 90,000 to 120,000 words. As is the case with Lost Lambs. The novel is 95% original, imaginative, brave, bold and bohemian and only 5% cowardly (commercial imperatives make cowards of us all) so I feel safe in recommending it wholeheartedly.