Elizabeth is Missing

March 10, 2014
British author Healey draws on her own grandmothers’ experiences to create the distinctive narrator of her first novel. Maud Horsham can no longer function safely in the present, and one of the unanswered questions of this sad, unsettling psychological mystery is why Maud lives alone in the south of England, with only a little part-time help and daily visits from Helen, her grown daughter. When Maud becomes obsessed with the apparent disappearance of Elizabeth, “the only friend I have left,” her already erratic life becomes chaotic. All of her attempts to find Elizabeth, including visits to the police, are unsuccessful. Meanwhile, Maud’s search for Elizabeth elicits memories of another disappearance—that of her sister, Sukey, back in 1948. Few readers may want to journey through the mind of a person with dementia, but Healey demonstrates that an absorbing tale can indeed be written from such a perspective. Agent: Karolina Sutton, Curtis Brown (U.K.).

Maud is slowly losing her short-term memory, but she does know that her friend Elizabeth is missing. Davina Porter narrates Emma Healey's compelling story of memory, identity, and loss. A story about someone who has to repeatedly ask the same questions may sound tedious, but both Healey and Porter are at the top of their game, and the result is a compelling audiobook. Porter modulates her voice to sound slightly younger or older depending on whether she's narrating a present-day portion of the story or scenes from Maud's past. It could have been difficult for the listener to differentiate between the time periods, but Porter's performance invokes just the right amount of subtlety to make it easy, thus making this an outstanding listen. J.L.K. Winner of AudioFile Earphones Award © AudioFile 2014, Portland, Maine