Lost and Wanted

A Novel

By: Nell Freudenberger

Narrated by: Ann Marie Lee

Length: 13 hrs and 31 mins

Publisher's summary

New York Times Best Seller
Named a Best Book of 2019 by Vogue and NPR's Maureen Corrigan

"Freudenberger's brilliant and compassionate novel takes on the big questions of the universe and proves, again, that she is one of America's greatest writers." (Andrew Sean Greer, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Less)

An emotionally engaging, suspenseful new novel from the best-selling author, told in the voice of a renowned physicist: an exploration of female friendship, romantic love, and parenthood - bonds that show their power in surprising ways.

Helen Clapp's breakthrough work on five-dimensional space-time landed her a tenured professorship at MIT; her popular books explain physics in plain terms. Helen disdains notions of the supernatural in favor of rational thought and proven ideas. So it's perhaps especially vexing for her when, on an otherwise unremarkable Wednesday in June, she gets a phone call from a friend who has just died.

That friend was Charlotte Boyce, Helen's roommate at Harvard. The two women had once confided in each other about everything - in college, the unwanted advances Charlie received from a star literature professor; after graduation, Helen's struggles as a young woman in science, Charlie's as a black screenwriter in Hollywood, their shared challenges as parents. But as the years passed, Charlie became more elusive, and her calls came less and less often. And now, she's permanently, tragically gone.

As Helen is drawn back into Charlie's orbit and also into the web of feelings she once had for Neel Jonnal - a former college classmate now an acclaimed physicist on the verge of a Nobel Prize-winning discovery - she is forced to question the laws of the universe that had always steadied her mind and heart.

Suspenseful, perceptive, deeply affecting, Lost and Wanted is a story of friends and lovers, lost and found, at the most defining moments of their lives.

©2019 Nell Freudenberger (P)2019 Random House Audio

Critic reviews

“Beautiful, startling, affecting...Freudenberger joins [an] august tradition of yoking poetry to cutting-edge science. This is a novel about female friendship begun in America in the 1990s, when women didn’t talk about sexual harassment and friends didn’t talk about race; when women (and especially women of color) were trying to build careers and no one was acknowledging how much harder it would be for them than for white men. Under such strain, the book seems to say, it’s incredible that women sustain any friendships at all. And yet the distance between Charlie and Helen is moving: the space that opens between them reverberates with what might have been. I was moved by intimacies near and far, real and imagined, lost and found.” (Louisa Hall, The New York Times Book Review, cover review)

“Absorbing, intelligent, touching...a bittersweet love story about a lost friend, a missed romance, and an all-consuming career. Freudenberger deploys physics as a catalyst for new perspectives on time and our trajectories through it, rather than just metaphorical ballast. She balances the science with tender, convincing portraits of two kids. Enriched by multi-level discussions about the spacetime continuum, whether Einstein believed in God, uncertainty, gravity, and, most notably, the force we exert on each other, Lost and Wanted is a moving story about down-to-earth issues: an outstanding achievement.” (Heller McAlpin, NPR)

"Intellectually dazzling and almost unbearably moving. Probing the mysteries of the physical universe and the equally mysterious nature of human connection, Freudenberger writes fearlessly and lyrically about physics and grief; parenthood and friendship; the subtleties of race and the seriousness of female ambition. I've read many novels that made me think and some that made me cry, but few that did both as powerfully as this one did." (Amy Waldman, author of The Submission)

Too much science...

And not enough plot and character resolution. There was so much detail about the science I wish the story itself had that much detail. It made the plot feel secondary and it end flat for me.

Pretty good book, mediocre performance-

I think I would've liked this book more if I'd read it rather than listened to it. The main character is a by-the-book female brilliant female scientist who operates in a matter-of-fact way. And in the course of the book and what she's experienced, she softens and opens herself up. The audio performer gives the main character a very overly emotional tone from the beginning. I think it weakens both the character and the plot. I did enjoy the book, but I never felt the performance matched the character.

Rarified Air

Quite well written and very intelligent, but you can't really call it "popular culture". Extremely specific to a particular demographic of reader. Ivy league, STEM nerds would feel quite at home and the science is super but....all of it was more a lesson than entertainment. She only dabbled her toes in the WE DON"T KNOW IT ALL argument that scientists are loathe to admit. Just wonder how applicable this story/work is to general audiences.

A Kind of Nice Story

There's nothing wrong with this book, just not a whole lot to make one feel that it was 13.5 hours well spent. Part of it was the topical smorgasbord: child-raising, a bit of science, the politics of the academic world, single mom (by choice) doing things her own way, nature of friendship, some #metoo thrown in...and a fair amount more. Long, long runway for a story that never quite got off the ground, for me. The narrator's voice is pleasant, but out of sync for brilliant women scientists that I have met. I would have liked a bit more Sigourney Weaver/Ripley, what I heard was more Meg Ryan/Reese Witherspoon. Pleasant beach read, yes, for some. On par with A Tale for the Time Being (Ruth Ozeki), The Power (Naomi Alderman), or almost anything by Margaret Atwood or Ursula K. LeGuin, hmmm, no. Lastly, when I had finished the book, I wondered if the book companiy's editorial staff had been on strike: half of the meanderings in this story could have been trimmed without doing any appreciable damage to the story line, dramatic impact, or themes.

Booring

I expected a lot more quantum physics entanglement story line. I got over 1/2 way through and despite reviews that say it's late coming in the book, I couldn't slog through any more "character development" to get to the good stuff. know that this was expertly written though. I happen to be a non fiction fan but thought I would give this a try based on the description of the having a metaphysical bent. I am returning it.

Disappointing ending

Book held my interest,was well narrated,but some of talk about physics was over my head.

No resolution to anything

The story--such as it was--had no structure that I could discern, unless time passage qualifies for that. There was so much detail about physics (why??) and so much detail about the main character's friendship with the deceased friend...but what did that lead to? What did any of it lead to? It was pleasant enough to listen to, but I kept listening, waiting for some big reveal or realization or something., Normally in a novel the protagonist undergoes some kind of profound change or realization--and getting to the change is the story. There was no change, therefore no story--at least for me.

Over explaining for 30 Somethings

Where have all the copy editors gone - long time passing. 25% of this book could have been cut from the tedious descriptions of rooms and wardrobes. The Ghost buildup is Anti-climactic. I stopped listening by chapter 10. As someone who works for passage of an Oregon Death With Dignity law in several states I couldn’t take the tedium of the writing any longer.

DISAPPOINTING

I was expecting a smart ,brainy book with a smattering of quantum physics but instead a boring analysis of her relationship with her dead friend. Oh,and then the old trope....THE GHOST! Ghosts and time travel are just DONE, please!

Brilliant

As good as The Newlyweds, but totally different. Very thoroughly imagined. She has a real gift for obsevation and characterization. The plot moves forward naturally with no artifice.