Lost and Found

Kathryn Schulz: Macmillan, $33

This brilliant new memoir tells the parallel stories of Schulz losing her beloved father and falling in love. Challenging the notion that only unhappy families are interesting, hers is a story of losing a loving, eccentric, gregarious man shortly after having found a beautiful, generous intelligent woman. The first part of the book is a thoughtful meditation on loss using the idea of the Valley of Lost Things – that place forever unavailable to the living. The second part of the book is a real love story, one about how two women come to make a life together, much of which takes place on the open road. Rich with literary references, natural history, philosophical reflection, this is a delight to read. Schulz is utterly sane, terrifically clever, and wise. LAURA KROETSCH hhhhj