Lost & Found

A Memoir

By: Kathryn Schulz

Narrated by: Kathryn Schulz

NATIONAL BESTSELLER • NEW YORK TIMES EDITORS’ CHOICE • A “profound and beautiful” (Marilynne Robinson) account of joy and sorrow from one of the great writers of our time, The New Yorker’s Kathryn Schulz, winner of the Pulitzer Prize

“I will stake my reputation on you being blown away by Lost & Found.”—Anne Lamott, author of Dusk, Night, Dawn and Bird by Bird

WINNER OF THE LAMBDA LITERARY AWARD • LONGLISTED FOR THE NATIONAL BOOK AWARD • FINALIST FOR THE NATIONAL JEWISH BOOK AWARD • LONGLISTED FOR THE ANDREW CARNEGIE MEDAL

ONE OF THE TEN BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR: People
ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR: Time, NPR, Oprah Daily, The Washington Post, The Boston Globe, Esquire, Vulture, She Reads, Book Riot, Publishers Weekly

One spring morning, Kathryn Schulz went to lunch with a stranger and fell in love. Having spent years looking for the right relationship, she was dazzled by how swiftly everything changed when she finally met her future wife. But as the two of them began building a life together, Schulz’s beloved father—a charming, brilliant, absentminded Jewish refugee—went into the hospital with a minor heart condition and never came out. Newly in love yet also newly bereft, Schulz was left contending simultaneously with wild joy and terrible grief.

Those twin experiences form the heart of Lost & Found, a profound meditation on the families that make us and the families we make. But Schulz’s book also explores how disappearance and discovery shape us all. On average, we each lose two hundred thousand objects over our lifetime, and Schulz brilliantly illuminates the relationship between those everyday losses and our most devastating ones. Likewise, she explores the importance of seeking, whether for ancient ruins or new ideas, friends, faith, meaning, or love. The resulting book is part memoir, part guidebook to sustaining wonder and gratitude even in the face of loss and grief. A staff writer at The New Yorker and winner of the Pulitzer Prize, Schulz writes with curiosity, tenderness, and humor about the connections between joy and sorrow—and between us all.

©2022 Kathryn Schulz (P)2022 Random House Audio

Critic reviews

“In an ocean of churning cynicism and despair, this is a winning bet.”—The New York Times

“Sublime, compassionate . . . brilliant.”—Minneapolis Star-Tribune

“Lost & Found exemplifies the best of what memoir can do.”—Oprah Daily

Unlike Anything Else You Will Read

This memoir includes riffs on the conjunction “and”, touches on minor Greek gods, explores all facets of “lost” and “found” as words… and will have you stopping to rewind to hear a phrase about the most most mundane things expressed in a way that is fresh, memorable, and maybe amusing. This is a great book.

Personal and Pensive

I always enjoy hearing the author reading their work and believe that I get a better experience when I can pair voice/work and image. Perhaps Audible could include mini bios and images in their future developments.
The story is well written and I got the impression through the vast use of uncommon word usage of the influence the author’s father had on this writing. This helped me envision his character greatly and share in his presence as well as his absence.
The author’s exploration of loss on a scale from the mundane to the life altering was insightful and original. The development of found was more monotone than I would have liked since compared to grief I perhaps and more personally would have expected more embellishment of love especially when it defines your future so surely. Still ,I can view it as a balanced take on both themes.
In the final pages when the writer ties up the story by pulling in all the highlights and reconnecting touch points was well developed. It reminds me of how one looks back through photos fondly of a trip that will stay with them always.

Love this about life and love and grief

I loved everything about this book! I want my daughter to read it too! Will definitely listen to this one again when I need some cheering up. Thank you to this wonderful author

LOVE THIS BOOK!

I can't remember reading a more beautiful book, maybe EVER. I THOROUGHLY & COMPLETELY enjoyed it & will read anything by this author.

Finely crafted well worth the journey

The author brings great perspective on living living and losing, then finding. Messages and wisdoms await. I highly recommended and will to all that care to know my opinion. An important addition to the library of ‘must read’ books.

Beautifully written and so eloquent

A passage from this book was read by David Brooks during a UTube talk about his book, “How to Know a Person” at the Free Library of Philadelphia. A very important person in my life was dying at this time and the passage affected me very deeply. I immediately got the audio version of “Lost & Found” and just finished listening. It offers tender, fascinating and truly beautiful musings on the most important things in life: what we lose and what we find. A real gem of a book, an important and gorgeous one.

An astonishing meditation on the ordinary

The basic stuff of life takes on a shimmering, gorgeous sheen as Schulz turns her eye on the crucial moments in her mid-life. Filled with wisdom about language and existence, it is too deep to be called earnest and too smart to be called sentimental.

Great juxtaposition between "lost and found"

This is a must listen for both the grief of loss and for the power of transformational love.

A Journey Well Written

What I enjoyed most about this book was experiencing the losses and findings of the author's life in a way that helped me understand and appreciate my own personal losses and findngs.

Very impressive

I flew through this book in about three days. It's an absolutely stunning meditation on the act of losing someone you deeply love and falling in love. I could feel al the author's emotions vividly, her love for these people in her life who during the book you also come to love. But she was also able to pull away and think about her subject in very thoughtful ways. The narration was also wonderful. Highly recommend.