Little Boy Lost

Marghanita Laski’s novel Little Boy Lost is as enthralling as it is heart-wrenching. A man grapples with questions of emotional responsibility, fatherhood, and memory. Laski describes a much-changed France, struggling to rebuild its morale after the ruin caused by wartime bombing and occupation.

English writer Hilary Wainwright lost all trace of his young son when Lisa, his wife, was killed by the Gestapo in Paris. Several years later, an acquaintance travels to England with news that Hilary’s son may be alive in France. Doubting whether five-year-old Jean is indeed his, and determined not to feel vulnerable to love and tenderness again, Hilary travels to France to find the boy. Amidst a war-torn Northern French town, he gets to know young Jean, as well as the town’s inhabitants. In a matter of days Hilary must decide if this charming and intelligent child could be his own . . . and if he is prepared to take Jean home.

Little Boy Lost is part of the Persephone Audiobook Collection, a series of forgotten classics including neglected fiction and non-fiction by women writers. First published in 1949, this edition includes a new afterword by Anne Sebba.