Lizzie is lonely. Her parents have gone and her brother, who believes he's a woman, is missing. Most of all, though, Lizzie is preoccupied by Sally, her former lover who has gone off with a man with a fat neck. Despite the best efforts of Petula, who lives downstairs from her, and Ruby, who runs the cafe where she works, Lizzie can't get Sally out of her mind. She starts to stalk her, collecting bathroom fluff, dust and pubes from Sally's bed - all the things that somehow prove that life is taking place without her. She needs this proof as her mind is becoming increasingly muddled. "In Search of the Missing Eyelash" is a novel about home and love and loss and what can become undone when we try to make it all better. It's also about gender and sex and it flips from heartbreaking to hilarious within the stroke of an eyelash. It marks the debut of a wonderful new writer.
In Search of the Missing Eyelash
and over 1.5 million other books are available for Amazon Kindle . Learn more
| ||||||||||||||||||||
Did you know you can trade in your old books for an Amazon.co.uk Gift Card to spend on the things you want? Visit the Books Trade-In Store for more details. Special Offer until June 30, 2013: Receive an additional £5 promotional Gift Certificate, when you trade-in at least £10 worth of books. Learn more. |
Book Description
Product details
Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?
|
More About the Author
Discover books, learn about writers, and more.
Product Description
Review
`loneliness, love and loss seep from this bittersweet debut novel ... the
agony of longing will strike a chord with any reader...'
-- Financial Times
`the novel explores homosexuality, loss and rejection... Lizzie is real and
believable" -- Time Out Magazine
'A marvellous debut: honest, funny and sad. I loved it.' -- Sarah Waters
'It's a sparkling novel...so sweetly funny throughout... beautiful
and true.'
-- Peter Hobbs
'an unusually striking first novel'
-- Observer
'dry, deadpan, intriguing style...manages to combine sitcom-style
farce with movingly understated heartache.' -- Guardian
'sensitive, ferocious and very funny' -- New Statesman
`A sad yet captivating tale of modern unrequited love'
-- Easy Living
`Hilarious and poetic...it pulls love and gentleness out of
nowhere... Wonderful.' -- Ali Smith
`my favourite read of the year; a lovely, poignant, funny book'
-- Sarah Waters
agony of longing will strike a chord with any reader...'
-- Financial Times
`the novel explores homosexuality, loss and rejection... Lizzie is real and
believable" -- Time Out Magazine
'A marvellous debut: honest, funny and sad. I loved it.' -- Sarah Waters
'It's a sparkling novel...so sweetly funny throughout... beautiful
and true.'
-- Peter Hobbs
'an unusually striking first novel'
-- Observer
'dry, deadpan, intriguing style...manages to combine sitcom-style
farce with movingly understated heartache.' -- Guardian
'sensitive, ferocious and very funny' -- New Statesman
`A sad yet captivating tale of modern unrequited love'
-- Easy Living
`Hilarious and poetic...it pulls love and gentleness out of
nowhere... Wonderful.' -- Ali Smith
`my favourite read of the year; a lovely, poignant, funny book'
-- Sarah Waters
Book Description
'It's tremendous! It's so good about loneliness and want... such a mix of hilarious and poetic and delicate and tough.... Wonderful' - Ali Smith
--This text refers to an alternate
Paperback
edition.
Inside This Book
(Learn More)
Browse and search another edition of this book.
Browse and search another edition of this book.
Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful
By Simon Savidge Reads
TOP 500 REVIEWER
Format:Paperback
`In Search of the Missing Eyelash' is narrated by Lizzie. Lizzie is a really interesting character that at first I couldn't work out if I was going to like. By the end of the novel I was on a complete emotional journey of hilarious highs and also some surprising and shocking lows. Lizzie is in a strange emotional place. Her father has died a while back which has scarred her, she has fallen out with her mother, her brother Simon (or Amanda as he likes to be known) is missing and she is pretty much obsessed with and stalking her ex-girlfriend Sally who has left her for a man `with a fat neck'. When I say stalking I mean proper stalking with cameras and stuff collecting bathroom fluff and other odd assortments.
Her confidantes are her self obsessed neighbour (who I didn't quite like and yet who supplied many laughs) who is always falling in love and her boss Ruby of `Ruby's Caff'. Her workplace and its customers I think were a stroke of complete genius from McLeod secondary characters such as Elsie who is a bit psychic and Alf whose son finds him a Thai Bride, just made light in some very dark parts of the book. The story follows Lizzie as she follows Sally and as things start to unravel all around her.
I couldn't believe this was a debut novel. I thought that McLeod's prose was perfect and in some parts very poetic, and I don't mean because of one of the characters poems about Pickled Onions, and had me totally spell bound. I thought the way it dealt with gender, sexuality and a family breakdown was honest and poignant without being overly dramatic (there is a good sprinkling of drama in there though). I just thought it was an incredibly accomplished novel and was much deeper and darker than I was expecting, I thought it was going to be very funny from the blurb which it is.... Read more ›
Her confidantes are her self obsessed neighbour (who I didn't quite like and yet who supplied many laughs) who is always falling in love and her boss Ruby of `Ruby's Caff'. Her workplace and its customers I think were a stroke of complete genius from McLeod secondary characters such as Elsie who is a bit psychic and Alf whose son finds him a Thai Bride, just made light in some very dark parts of the book. The story follows Lizzie as she follows Sally and as things start to unravel all around her.
I couldn't believe this was a debut novel. I thought that McLeod's prose was perfect and in some parts very poetic, and I don't mean because of one of the characters poems about Pickled Onions, and had me totally spell bound. I thought the way it dealt with gender, sexuality and a family breakdown was honest and poignant without being overly dramatic (there is a good sprinkling of drama in there though). I just thought it was an incredibly accomplished novel and was much deeper and darker than I was expecting, I thought it was going to be very funny from the blurb which it is.... Read more ›
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
I love this book with all my heart.
It nails the feeling of being young, queer and broke in London and it touches your heart without being too sentimental. I really hope Karen will write another novel soon!
It nails the feeling of being young, queer and broke in London and it touches your heart without being too sentimental. I really hope Karen will write another novel soon!
1 of 2 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Almost as perfect as a novel can be. Made me want to laugh, cry and do both simultaneously.
4 of 8 people found the following review helpful
By DrewGum
Format:Paperback
Another book that made me laugh.
Lizzie's girlfriend has dumped her for a man with a fat neck, her brother, who likes dressing up as a woman has disappeared, and now her mother has gone too.
Lizzie decides to take up some stalking - she wants to find out if Sally, the ex, really doesn't love her anymore. This involves breaking into her house, following her on holiday in disguise - the French resistance look, black bobbed wig, black mac.
It's great about being in love, waiting for texts, analysing how many 'x's they have on them.
It has great secondary characters. Petula downstairs, her best friend and sex addict 'You know anal sex is very in at the moment', who talks about her boyfriends but we never get to see them - the Welsh poet, the Welsh barman, the bouncer.
And it also has a great sense of place. Lizzie works in a cafe (all the pensioners who come in go on a trip to see the whale that is swimming up the Thames), she goes to the launderette, local pubs, lives in a flat, drinks wine and takes a bottle of vodka in her bag to drink before going out in Brighton.
The humour is dry, doesn't feel forced, and it isn't contrived.
Definitely recommended and Ali Smith likes it too. In fact, good reviews all round.
Lizzie's girlfriend has dumped her for a man with a fat neck, her brother, who likes dressing up as a woman has disappeared, and now her mother has gone too.
Lizzie decides to take up some stalking - she wants to find out if Sally, the ex, really doesn't love her anymore. This involves breaking into her house, following her on holiday in disguise - the French resistance look, black bobbed wig, black mac.
It's great about being in love, waiting for texts, analysing how many 'x's they have on them.
It has great secondary characters. Petula downstairs, her best friend and sex addict 'You know anal sex is very in at the moment', who talks about her boyfriends but we never get to see them - the Welsh poet, the Welsh barman, the bouncer.
And it also has a great sense of place. Lizzie works in a cafe (all the pensioners who come in go on a trip to see the whale that is swimming up the Thames), she goes to the launderette, local pubs, lives in a flat, drinks wine and takes a bottle of vodka in her bag to drink before going out in Brighton.
The humour is dry, doesn't feel forced, and it isn't contrived.
Definitely recommended and Ali Smith likes it too. In fact, good reviews all round.
Customer Discussions
|
This product's forum
Active discussions in related forums
Search Customer Discussions
|
Related forums
|
Listmania!
Look for similar items by category
Feedback
- Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?
- I am the Author, and I want to comment on my book.
- I am the Publisher, and I want to comment on this book.
