Praise for The Lost Story
“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 and the North Bath Trilogy
“This wildly imaginative book speaks to every reader who yearns for a more magical world.”—Thao Thai, author of Banyan Moon
“This soothing novel will appeal to fans of classic and portal fantasies, where other fantastic worlds are lying under our own, just waiting to be discovered.”—Booklist
“A spiritual epilogue to C. S. Lewis’s The Chronicles of Narnia, Meg Shaffer’s The Lost Story explores what happens after you return from a magical realm.”—BookPage
“Readers will find this an absolutely immersive pleasure to read. Shaffer delivers an unforgettable and nostalgic experience.”—Library Journal
Praise for Meg Shaffer
“A love letter to reading and the power that childhood stories have over us long after we’ve grown up.”—V. E. Schwab, #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue
“Wholly moving.”—Jodi Picoult, New York Times bestselling co-author of Mad Honey
“Shaffer speaks to every reader who yearns for a more magical world.”—Thao Thai, author of Banyan Moon
“Shaffer blends tragedy and triumph. . . . This is wish fulfillment in the best way.”—PUblishers Weekly (starred review)
“A heartwarming, page-turning story of found family and the world-changing power of a good book.”—Melissa Albert, New York Times bestselling author of The Hazel Wood
“A dreamy, inventive novel about how books can not only change lives but save them, too.”—Sarah Addison Allen, New York Times bestselling author of Other Birds
“Meg Shaffer’s debut establishes her as one of the best.”—Gwenda Bond, New York Times bestselling author of Mr. & Mrs. Witch
“Magical, emotional, and charming.”—Booklist
The Lost Story: A Novel
Narrated by Jorjeana Marie
Meg ShafferUnabridged
The Lost Story: A Novel
Narrated by Jorjeana Marie
Meg ShafferUnabridged
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Overview
“This is the book you've been waiting for.”-Richard Russo, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Empire Falls and the North Bath Trilogy
As boys, best friends Jeremy Cox and Rafe Howell went missing in a vast West Virginia state forest, only to mysteriously reappear six months later with no explanation for where they'd gone or how they'd survived.
Fifteen years after their miraculous homecoming, Rafe is a reclusive artist who still bears scars inside and out but has no memory of what happened during those months. Meanwhile, Jeremy has become a famed missing persons' investigator. With his uncanny abilities, he is the one person who can help vet tech Emilie Wendell find her sister, who vanished in the very same forest as Rafe and Jeremy.
Jeremy alone knows the fantastical truth about the disappearances, for while the rest of the world was searching for them, the two missing boys were in a magical realm filled with impossible beauty and terrible danger. He believes it is there that they will find Emilie's sister. However, Jeremy has kept Rafe in the dark since their return for his own inscrutable reasons. But the time for burying secrets comes to an end as the quest for Emilie's sister begins. The former lost boys must confront their shared past, no matter how traumatic the memories.
Alongside the headstrong Emilie, Rafe and Jeremy must return to the enchanted world they called home for six months-for only then can they get back everything and everyone they've lost.
* This audiobook edition includes a downloadable PDF that contains a map and recipes from the book.
Editorial Reviews
★ 06/01/2024
Shaffer's (The Wishing Game) second novel is a modern-day fairy tale set in West Virginia and a beautiful yet dangerous realm. Two teenage boys, Jeremy and Rafe, are lost in a forest, only to be found six months later by some hikers. Rafe is unable to remember anything that happened while they were missing. Jeremy remembers everything about the enchanted place they encountered but refuses to tell Rafe or explain where they were or how they survived. Years later, Jeremy has become a skilled missing-persons investigator specializing in finding lost women. Emilie, who is looking for her lost sister, enlists him to help find her, as her sister is lost in the same forest where Rafe and Jeremy disappeared. The question then becomes whether or not Jeremy will dare to venture back into the magical realm he left so long ago. VERDICT 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.—Leigh Verburg
2024-05-17
Three lost souls search for a missing woman.
When best friends Ralph “Rafe” Howell and Jeremy Cox were teenagers, they went missing in the woods of West Virginia for six months. Now, 15 years later, the two are estranged. Rafe lives in a cabin and spends his days hunting, painting, and being generally hermitic. Jeremy has an uncanny, almost supernatural ability to find lost people, and spends his time finding lost girls. Enter Emilie Wendell. Emilie’s adoptive mother recently died and, in her search to ease her loneliness, Emilie uploaded her DNA to a website that matched her with a half-sister she didn’t know existed. Here’s the catch: Emilie’s sister, Shannon Yates, went missing years ago in the same forest as Rafe and Jeremy. Emilie shows up to a TV interview Jeremy is doing and demands he help find her sister. Jeremy agrees and reveals a secret: Shannon, better known to him as Skya, is the queen of a magical land called Shanandoah. As it turns out, Jeremy and Rafe weren’t lost in the woods those many years ago but were spending their days galivanting around the secret magical kingdom whose entrance is in the forest. To return they need to enlist the help of Rafe, whose memories of Shanandoah and, more heartbreakingly, the love he held for Jeremy were erased when they left the magical world. After quite a bit of convincing, Rafe reluctantly agrees to help. What unfolds is an adventure filled with sword fights, romance, and gut-wrenching stories of the dark past that led the boys to the forest in the first place. Shaffer’s depictions of Emilie and Skya fall almost completely flat. That said, she makes up for it with the tender love between Jeremy and Rafe and the magical depiction of the world they once left behind.
Like all the best fairy tales: nostalgic with an undercurrent of darkness.
Product Details
| BN ID: | 2940160189963 |
|---|---|
| Publisher: | Penguin Random House |
| Publication date: | 07/16/2024 |
| Edition description: | Unabridged |
| Sales rank: | 1,059,241 |
Read an Excerpt
Chapter One
Our Story Now Begins
The drive from Emilie Wendell’s house in Milton, Ohio, to Bernheim Forest outside Louisville took a good two and a half hours. She’d wanted to make it in two hours and fifteen minutes, but accident traffic caused a bottleneck on I-65 south. She prayed the taping would be delayed. These things never started on time, right?
For weeks, she’d been internet-stalking Jeremy Cox, hoping and praying he’d somehow end up near her house. Then finally, that morning, she’d woken up to a Google alert in her email. A documentary TV show called Whereabouts Unknown would be doing a taping at Bernheim that day—special guest, the famed missing persons investigator Jeremy Cox. She’d thrown on yesterday’s clothes—red leggings, a T-shirt, and a hoodie, stuffed her feet into her boots, and ran out of the house.
Two and a half hours of frantic driving was a small price to pay for the chance to meet with Jeremy Cox in person. As soon as she arrived, she parked, grabbed her backpack, and then jogged down the path to the visitor’s center.
The day was October 10, and the weather was cloudy and cold. Cold for Kentucky, anyway. Even so, she was sweating by the time she reached the outdoor stage. She found two park employees putting chairs back into stacks. A flyer printed on neon orange paper advertised Jeremy Cox’s safety talk. It seemed to be over already.
“Did I miss the show?” she asked the employee, embarrassed by her breathless voice. “I’m supposed to meet with Jeremy Cox,” she added, so it wouldn’t sound like she was some creepy fangirl but someone who had an appointment.
An older woman pointed down a trail. “The talk’s over, but they’re doing the taping near the pond by Little Nis.”
“Right, Little Nis.” Emilie thanked the woman and ran down the trail.
She found the pond and walked around the bend until she spotted the first of the Forest Giants. She’d read about the famous art installation but wasn’t prepared for the sheer size of them. Twenty feet tall or more. Impressive in photos but jaw-dropping in person. There were three of them, she knew, a family of enormous trolls. This was Little Nis, the son. Somewhere in the park was his pregnant mother troll and his sister.
Emilie and her mom had planned to see them, but they’d never made the time. And then, of course, there was no more time to make.
She pushed thoughts of her mom out of her head. Emilie had never been great at focusing, but today, she would do it. She had to.
And there he was. Jeremy Cox. He stood on a footbridge with his back to the pond. He looked just like all his pictures online. He had rust-red hair, a perfectly groomed beard, and was dressed like a hip young rock climber. Gray fitted long-sleeved T-shirt. Canvas cargo pants, the kind made for climbing. Brown hiking boots, well worn, she noted. A TV crew of three surrounded Jeremy while a woman with a pitch-perfect NPR voice asked him questions he’d probably been asked a billion times before.
Interviewer: So, Jeremy, why only girls? You have this incredible skill, but only use it to help find missing girls.
Jeremy: Girls and women.
Interviewer: Right. But why just them? No boys at all?
Jeremy: Women get lost differently than men, who get lost differently than small children, who get lost differently than the elderly. A lot of psychology goes into it. It makes sense to specialize.
Interviewer: In ten years, you’ve found fifty missing women and girls and recovered fourteen bodies. That’s an astounding level of success for one person. And all over the world too.
Emilie listened while the woman ticked off some of the countries where Jeremy had tracked and found missing people. A toddler who’d wandered off the family farm in Brazil. The girlfriend of a billionaire who’d disappeared on vacation in St. Barts. A French hiker with a broken leg trapped in a ravine in Greece.
Even in countries he’d never stepped foot in before, in harsh climates, in unforgiving landscapes, Jeremy Cox had an uncanny knack for finding the lost, dead or alive.
Interviewer: Do you always find your man? I mean, your woman? Your girl?
Jeremy: Not always.
Interviewer: No?
Jeremy: There’s still one out there I’m looking for.
Interviewer: But only one? Unbelievable. What’s your secret?
Jeremy: There’s no magic to it. I’ve been on the other end of a search party. Most people in search-and-rescue haven’t. I know what it’s like to be lost. And I’m very, very lucky.
Interviewer: Let’s say I’m lost in a wooded area like this. What should I do to aid in my own rescue?
Jeremy: Even in thick forest terrain, someone lost can travel about two miles per hour. In two hours, that’s a four-mile radius, making for a possible search area of over fifty square miles. That’s why we tell people to stay put and let someone find them. Unfortunately, studies have shown about sixty-five percent of lost people in that situation don’t stay put.
Interviewer: Why is that?
Jeremy: Denial.
Interviewer: Denial?
As if sensing Emilie’s stare, Jeremy glanced at her. They were only twenty feet apart, close enough that she knew he was looking at her, searching her face. His brow furrowed as if he was trying to place her, but then he turned back to the woman interviewing him.
Jeremy: Nobody wants to admit they’re lost.
The interviewer laughed. She turned to the director.
“That’s good,” she said, sounding like a completely different, almost normal person. “Good line to end on.”
“Are we finished?” Jeremy asked. He had the slightest hint of an English accent.
“One more,” she said, then turned her NPR voice back on.
Interviewer: If Ralph Howell were lost out there again, would you make an exception to your “girls only” rule and try to find him?
Emilie watched as Jeremy Cox’s jaw set and his eyes turned to granite. They would get an answer from the Forest Giants before getting one out of him.
“You were right,” Jeremy said, glancing her way again. “That was a good line to end on.”
While the camera guy was getting some footage of Little Nis and the surrounding woods, the woman interviewing Jeremy took him aside and whispered something. An apology, maybe? Was the topic of Ralph Howell forbidden or something?
Whatever they were talking about, it was over in minutes. An assistant even younger than Emilie helped Jeremy remove his mic pack from his shirt and jacket.
Jeremy shook a few hands, waved a quick goodbye to the crew, and started down the trail back toward the visitor’s center.
Emilie jogged after him.
“Hello?” she said as she caught up to him.
“Hey,” he said and kept walking, but he slowed down a beat, which she appreciated.
“I’m not with the show.” Her breath was short and fast, but she pasted on a smile and pretended she wasn’t about to pass out from overstimulation. “My name’s Emilie. You’re Jeremy Cox, right?”
“Usually,” he said. “What’s up?”
“Can I talk to you for a second? I won’t bring up Ralph Howell, swear.”
He glanced at her, the ghost of a smile on his lips. His eyes were alive now, not glazed over like they’d seemed during the interview.
Jeremy shrugged. “Thanks. He’s a private person. I ask people to leave him alone. They just can’t.”
Nodding, she said, “Right, right. Stevie and Lindsey all over again.”
He looked at her. “Who?”
She’d jogged in front of him and then stopped, which forced him to stop. She unzipped her hoodie to reveal her T-shirt underneath—a vintage Fleetwood Mac concert shirt, the one with the penguins and the baseball sleeves.
“Stevie Nicks. Lindsey Buckingham. Everybody wants to get the band back together.”
“Nice shirt,” he said. He had hazel eyes, like a summer forest—evergreen trees, rich earth, golden sunlight—and they lit up when he smiled or even almost smiled. She had a feeling there was a very different Jeremy Cox underneath the stone-faced TV persona.
“Thanks. Stevie Nicks is my lady and savior.”
His eyebrows slightly lifted. “She’s a little before your time, isn’t she?”
“Stevie Nicks transcends space and time,” she said. “Was that weird? I talk too much when I’m nervous. Or just in general. Can you say something weird so I’ll feel less awkward?”
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