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    The Secret of Lost Things
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    The Secret of Lost Things
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    The Secret of Lost Things
    Ebook389 pages6 hours

    The Secret of Lost Things

    By Sheridan Hay

    3.5/5

    ()

    Unavailable in your country

    Unavailable in your country

    About this ebook

    A stunning debut from a Australian writer – the story of a treasure hunt through a vast New York bookshop.

    At eighteen, Rosemary arrives in New York from Tasmania with little more than her love of books and an eagerness to explore the city she's read so much about. The moment she steps into the Arcade bookstore, she knows she has found a home. The gruff owner, Mr. Pike, gives her a job sorting through huge piles of books and helping the rest of the staff – a group as odd and idiosyncratic as the characters in a Dickens novel.

    There's Pearl, the loving, motherly transsexual who runs the cash register; Oscar, who shares his extensive, eclectic knowledge with Rosemary, but furiously rejects her attempts at a more personal relationship; and Arthur Pick, who supervises the art section and demonstrates a particular interest in photography books featuring naked men. The store manager Walter Geist is an albino, a lonely figure even within the world of the Arcade. When Walter's eyesight begins to fail, Rosemary becomes his assistant. And so it is Rosemary who first reads the letter from someone seeking to ‘place’ a lost manuscript by Herman Melville. Mentioned in Melville's personal correspondence but never published, the work is of inestimable value, and proof of its existence brings the simmering ambitions and rivalries of the Arcade staff to a boiling point.

    Based on actual documents the author found while doing research on Melville, ‘The Secret of Lost Things’ is at once a literary adventure that captures the excitement of discovering a long-lost manuscript, and an evocative portrait of life in a bookshop.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherHarperCollins UK
    Release dateAug 19, 2010
    ISBN9780007388080
    Unavailable
    The Secret of Lost Things
    Author

    Sheridan Hay

    Sheridan Hay was born in Tasmania. She worked in bookstores and in publishing for many years, and holds an MFA in writing and literature from Bennington. She has published short stories and teaches writing in the graduate program at Parson's School of Design, at The New School.

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    Reviews for The Secret of Lost Things

    3.5/5

    40 ratings41 reviews

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    • 4/5
      The secret of lost things is the story of Rosemary Savage, a native of Tasmania who loses her mother at age 18. A bookstore owner and friend of the family gives her a ticket to New York and her new life begins. She finds a job in a book store and meets its employees: Walter Geist, the store's manager and an albino; owner George Pike; Pearl, a transgender cash register operator, Robert Mitchell, rare books curator; Arnold, in charge of art and photography; Oscar, head of non-fiction; and several others. She begins her stay at the Martha Washington Hotel for Women where she befriends Lillian, the receptionist who is from South America. The relationships between the characters becomes a large part of the book, especially the friendship between Pearl and Lillian, whose son was one of the "disappeared" in Argentina. (And, along with apartment prices helps date the story to late 70'sor early 80s.)The story is also a mystery into the lost manuscript of Melville, The Isle of the Cross. Rosemary and Oscar research the work at the local library, while Rosemary becomes more involved with Mr. Geist.Author Sheridan Hay lists the sources used by Rosemary and Oscar and gives citations for all quotes used in the book. She a;lso goes into more detail about the events in Argentina to help explain the "disappeared," persons who were killed for their political views.The book is compelling and reads quickly. This is Sheridan Hay's only book to date, which is a shame as I'd like to read more of her work.
    • 4/5
      Very readable.
    • 3/5
      It was a little weird.
    • 2/5
      This book just didn't do it for me. The characters were just too bizarre, the plot not enough to hold it together. Rosemary's naivete, I probably spelled that wrong, came across as somewhat contrived, and I grew tired of her self absorption. Regrets.
    • 3/5
      Growing up and being lonely in a brand new big city. With a job that's like another city inhabited by a slitheringly varied bunch - the Arcade strikes me as smacking of Dickens or Melville (probably the latter), and as being bit naive (in a good way).
    • 5/5
      One small quibble... One doesn't write "Tasmania" on the customs form. One writes, TAS and the postal code and then AUSTRALIA. Despite Tasmania's cultural independence, they are still part of Australia. Just as when mailing things Hawaii gets reduced to HI.The review:Sometimes a book will just click with a reader. Everything (or almost everything) will fall into place and just be a shared experience between the author, the fictional characters and the reader. The Secret of Lost Things by Sheridan Hay was one of those books for me.Rosemary born on Anzac Day and therefore named for the herb often worn on lapels in Australia. Until her eighteenth birthday her home is her mother's hat shop in Tasmania. When her mother dies she is sent by a bookseller friend to New York with her mother's ashes in a box of Huon pine, one of the most pungent pine scents I have ever smelled; it seems to permeate the entire island.In that first chapter I was drawn back to my own experience as an exchange student in Tasmania at the age of 17. I can picture the very first place I visited on my own, a used book shop in Ulverstone to buy Nova by Samuel R. Delany for $5.20. I was just as naive and confused by Tasmanian culture (which is a blend of mainland Australian and British ex-pat cultures) as Rosemary is in New York. I can remember being overwhelmed by homesickness at the aroma of the Huon pines (which aren't really pines but smell enough like them to confuse a jet-lagged nose) growing at the Don college.Then there is Rosemary's time in New York where she works at a place called The Arcade (and apparently inspired by the author's time working at the Strand). Although I haven't worked in a bookstore (would love to someday) I have worked in a university library and in my father's antique shop both which attract people similar to the characters in The Secret of Lost Things.The final point where I clicked with Rosemary was with her involvement in the search for Melville's lost novel, Isle of the Cross (1853). While I'm no Melville scholar, I am a bit of a fan of his and Hawthorne's books and was vaguely aware of their odd friendship.Had all those different pieces in my life not been in place I probably would have been more troubled by the novel's flaws. The wacky characters are sometimes too two-dimensional, Rosemary stays naive too long, her obsession with Oscar is just as creepy as Geist's obsession with her is. Yes, those flaws are there but the connection I felt with the book was so strong I don't care about any of them.
    • 4/5
      Something there is about a bookstore that makes it an unlikely place to find deceit, betrayal, intrigue and death. All this and more happening in a New York City used bookstore called the Arcade make Sheridan Hay's 2007 novel "The Secret of Lost Things" an enticing read.Told in first person by Rosemary Savage, a lonely 18-year-old who leaves Tasmania for New York after her mother dies, the story becomes something of a coming-of-age tale. She finds a mother figure in Lillian, a woman from South America who lives at the same hotel where Rosemary settles. She develops a crush on Oscar, handsome coworker, even though he makes it clear he has no romantic interest in her or anyone else. Because of her youth, beauty and innocence, Rosemary becomes everyone's sounding board at the Arcade. She learns their secrets and, in some sense, becomes their co-conspirator.She is made the assistant of Walter Geist, a strange man who is losing his vision and increasingly depends on Rosemary to help him do his job. She learns Geist plans to sell to a wealthy collector, without the knowledge of his employer, an unpublished manuscript of a book by Herman Melville. Meanwhile, Oscar wants her to spy on Walter because he thinks the manuscript belongs in a library or museum, not hidden away in somebody's home. Still hoping to win his love, Rosemary goes along with him, betraying both Walter and Mr. Pike, her boss. And, while Oscar may have no romantic interest in Rosemary, it soon develops that Walter does."The Secret of Lost Things" is Sheridan Hay's first novel and, as far as I know, her only book to date. It is partly autobiographical as Hay herself left Australia for New York City, where she worked first for the Strand Bookstore. She now teaches literature. Her passion for literature, books and bookstores shine through in this fine novel.
    • 3/5
      I'd probably give it closer to 2.5 stars. It wasn't a bad read; interesting, but odd. The bookstore setting and search for a lost Melville manuscript added some intrigue to what I thought was really a coming of age novel.
    • 5/5
      Rosemary Savage is only 18 when she leaves Tasmania to find a new life for herself in New York City. Still grieving for her mother who passed shortly before she left, Rosemary has a difficult time adjusting to life in the big city, where nobody knows her and she is completely on her own. After a couple of weeks living in a temporary women's apartment house, Rosemary finds a job in an extremely popular though unusual used bookstore, where she is the only female employee, apart from a transgendered cashier named Pearl. As Rosemary is a floater, she helps out in all of the sections and works with a number of odd characters. Though Rosemary develops a secret crush on a celebate employee, Oscar, the floor manager develops a crush on Rosemary, and entwines her into a situation where she must work for him. As Rosemary becomes more settled and starts to make friends outside of the bookstore, she finds herself in a complicated set of alliances between different people involving the possibility of a lost Melville manuscript. Rosemary is young and confused about whom she should trust when she uses her resourcefulness to research Melville's history and fully understands what might be at stake. I thought this was a very charming novel with an interesting immigrant storyline taking place in a mysterious dusty bookstore. It was infused with the love of books, learning, and the history of literature. Really, a fantastic setting for a great novel. I thoroughly enjoyed it and I hope the author decides to write more!
    • 4/5
      The setting for this novel is about as interesting as the characters who are a pretty odd mixture of people. The characters are so odd they are more caricatures than real people. However, the mixture is a good one so it makes for a fun and interesting read for those of us that love a bit of mystery, a bit of literary history, and a bit of the bizarre.This is just a fun read and nothing more - not great literature and not particularly a book that will linger in your mind, but there's nothing wrong with that.
    • 2/5
      The Secret of Lost Things. Sheridan Hay. 2007. Pat gave me this book when we were at the beach, and I started reading it there. When a Tasmanian woman’s mother dies, her mother’s friend gives her a ticket to NY City. She is hired to work in an enormous bookstore full of old and new books and an odd assortment of people. Her supervisor, a mysterious albino involves her in a mysterious search for a lost manuscript of Herman Melville. Bookstore, weird characters, secret manuscript—all the things I like to read about, but somehow it did not come together. Maybe it is because it took me so long to read it.
    • 2/5
      Thriller, or something, set in the world of rare books. The author mistakes 'grotesque' for 'characterisation'; a rookie error, and an easy one to make. But dull to try to wade through.
    • 4/5
      Interesting semi-autobiographical tale of what a young Austrialian immigrant life is like working at a quirky bookstore modeled on the Strand in the alte 1970's.
    • 2/5
      A heroine from Australia, a cavernous used bookstore, a lost manuscript, intrigue, eccentric characters...all the elements that I would expect in a great read. However, somehow they didn't all come together for me. I did enjoy quite a lot of the story, but the characters seemed a bit to eccentric and I felt there were too many loose ends when I put down the book. Perhaps the author is thinking of a sequel?
    • 1/5
      Couldn't find a way in to it and had to force myself to finish it but mostly skimmed
    • 3/5
      I'm fascinated by books, and theoretically this book - which is all about people who are fascinated by books - should have been really enjoyable. Unfortunately it managed to be rather dry and colourless. Written in a careful and competent manner, it lacked the lyrical leaps that bring other stories to technicolour life. I didn't really feel as if I knew the central character, Rosemary, at all, and nor did I understand what it was about her that attracted Mr Geist, unless it was the fact she was the only woman employed at the bookstore.There were some things about this book that were done well - the array of enigmatic characters working at the 'Arcade' are impressively imagined. Oscar, in particular. Do we presume he had Aspergers, or something of that nature? Interesting the way things like this were not explained, leaving readers to reach their own conclusions. I did feel the analysis of Geist throughout the book was overdone a tad though..... He's an Albino, I was mentally shouting....Get over it!It may be easier to enjoy this book if you are a fan of Herman Melville, a central character in the novel despite the inconvenience of being dead. Unfortunately I read Moby Dick (a textbook if ever there was one) and hated it with a passion. If there is indeed a 'lost book' of Melville's in existence, sorry but it can stay lost as far as I'm concerned ;)
    • 3/5
      A reader's true joy is in building in their mind's eye the surroundings painted in words by the author. It was my mistake to have read the "acclaim" for the book prior to reading it. The comment that made the rad far less enjoyable reads (in part) ... to the overstuffed bookstore in New York that calls to mind the Strand.... ARGH -- having been to the store and thence reading that the author had actually WORKED there could only cause continual conflict with the story. Knowing that in the Strand that the top floor is of Rare Books and is only accessible by elevator only made the situation worse.Aside from being totally distracted by the above, I would classify this a work of literature. Don't expect it to be a thriller with the heroine being chased around for the lost manuscript that has fallen into her hands. Rather tastefully done -- with the author obviously having a passion for books.
    • 4/5
      I loved the writing! Very talented author with an enormous vocabulary! Interesting characters, and some were REALLY characters.The "plot" was mildly entertaining, but the basis of the story was really about knowing yourself and accepting others for how they are, faults and all. I hope to read more in the coming years by this author!
    • 4/5
      A young Australian woman (Rosemary, from the remote state of Tasmania) is brought up by her mother alone. When her mother dies she lives with another woman who decides that she should send Rosemary to New York. The story is mostly about Rosemary's growth to true adulthood while living in NY and working in a bookshop. Sounds boring, doesn't it? Well, even non-bibliophiles will find this story much more interesting than my summary suggests. It's not just about the nominal storyline (to do with a lost manuscript written by the author of Moby Dick), but there's a lot more complexity of relationships and real human stories. I suppose it does feed on a romantic view of what living in near poverty in New York would be like...and never having left Australia my ignorance makes me vulnerable to such visions. There's lots of other reviews of this book (it must have been a LT give-away) - I suggest you read those to get a more balanced perspective!
    • 5/5
      Rosemary has lived all of her eighteen years in a small town in Tasmania. When her mother dies, a family friend sends her off to New York armed with three hundred dollars and her mother's ashes in a small pine box. Rosemary finds a job in an enormous used and rare bookstore where the employees are about as colorful as you could hope to find in the NYC of 1980. Rosemary learns to negotiate relationships, although the man she decides to fall in love with is about as unsuitable as possible.There is a mystery, too. A manuscript, presumed lost, by Herman Melville is hinted at and she, as well as a few others at the bookstore, begin searching for clues to its nature. This book is beautifully written, in a slightly old-fashioned way, reminiscent of The Thirteenth Tale. Rosemary is naive, in the way of a sheltered eighteen-year-old, but she isn't stupid. The book explores Melville's friendship with Nathaniel Hawthorne and how his career as a writer ended with the publication of Moby Dick. The parts about Melville are eloquent and have me eager to dig into Moby Dick.
    • 3/5
      A young girl moves to New York from Tasmania after her mother passes away. She gets a job at a bookstore full of eccentric employees. In fact, they might be too eccentric. It seems at times that the author is pushing them in our faces and trying to convince readers that we should like these characters. It didn't work for me. I like the idea of a lost manuscript. Although personally, I'm not a fan of Melville, so I say "Let it stay lost." The quest to find acceptance, friendship, romance, and the manuscript just don't come together for me. Too much searching, looking, and yearning, and not enough just plain storytelling.
    • 3/5
      I have to say this was not one of my favorite books. The story line seems to be a good one young woman with no father, looses mother on birthday. She moves to New York to find her way in life, and in the meantime finds a job at a book store. She meets all the misfits in her daily life and also unknowingly gets herself in the middle of a scandle.The problem I had was how long it took for anything to really start happening. There where several chapters of nothing but set up. Once the story really started moving, it was ok. I liked the historical links, it was a great bonus.However, I am not so sure I will recommend it.
    • 3/5
      This book was a read for a RL book group. I am rather ambivalent about it. On the one hand I thought the writing was very good. There was a sensual quality at times that made me want to roll around in it. On the other hand the characters and story were exceptionally bland and uninteresting for most of the book. It picked up at the end, and the introduction of Melville and his lost book was interesting.The story is about a young, innocent, unbelievably naive 18 year old girl from Tasmania, named Rosemary. She had no father and after her mother died, a family friend sent her to New York City. There is no year given but I suspect it was in the 70s.In NYC she stays in a run down, cheap, women's residence. She eventually finds work at the Arcade bookstore (modeled on the Strand). Just by walking in and asking.The bulk of the story is about her trying to navigate the world of the bookstore, and its strange employees, while also building a life in the city. Internally she is trying to deal with the loss of her mother and the abandonment of her father.The owner and the employees are all odd, but not really interesting. The only character I find interesting is Pearl the cashier who is about to undergo sex reassignment surgery to become a woman anatomically. Rosemary develops father fixations on several employees, and a romantic crush on one who does not have romance/sex or emotional attachments to either sex. Oscar is not above using Rosemary's attraction to him, for his own gain.The owner, Mr. Pike, attempts to control the store and the employees. The employees in the sections they are in charge of, are plotting against each other, and trying to meet their own idiosyncratic needs. The plotting is around customers/collectors, sales, and finding rare or coveted books. Information about books is the lifeblood of the store.The store manager is an albino dwarf, who is also infatuated with Rosemary, but he repels her for most of the book. She ends up getting a loan to allow her to take an apartment, and part of the agreement is that she will become Mr. Geist's Assistant. It is never clear if the loan is from the store or Mr. Geist, and she is off-balance because of it. With her new position as his Assistant she becomes aware of a letter sent to Mr. Pike that is offering to sell a copy of Melville's lost work. Mr. Geist has intercepted it. She is unable to keep it to herself and she tells Oscar. Oscar believes that Geist is plotting to get the manuscript for himself and sell it for profit, keeping the store and Mr. Pike out of it. Oscar thinks the book belongs in a library or museum.Rosemary becomes involved in various deceptions in trying to find out who has the book for sale, and who is going to buy it. She has also told the man in the rare book room, a father figure, about the letter.The theme of Melville's book is supposed to be about remorse, and it seems that the actual story is about that as well. Rosemary wonders if her father who deserted them is remorseful. She is often remorseful for the actions she takes or doesn't take. She is spinning tales to each about what she has told the other 2 men about the letter, She has also made promises to each not to tell anyone else.She also makes friends with the woman at the desk of the women's residence, Lillian. A strange hostile woman who turns out to be from Argentina and the mother of a disappeared son taken by the government who never returned, and whose body has never been found.Lillian and Pearl try to warn Rosemary about her infatuation and imaginary romance with Oscar. It does no good. The lost Melville book project becomes pubic and has dire repercussions. The book finally ends, with Rosemary growing up.
    • 2/5
      I fell in love with the language and writing style of Sheridan Hay in the beginning of this book. By the time I got to Part 3, I was ready to change the title to "The Secret of Lost Interest". Despite the writing style, the development of the main character was really annoying to me. The entire cast of characters in the book are more caricature than character, but Rosemary "for remembrance" was naive, and facile. The arc of the story is about a lost manuscript of Herman Melville's with the theme of loss scattered through out the book. There is a bit of a moral at the end: Things are never lost when you hold them inside your memory.I really wanted to like this book, but I ended up not liking the main character and her naive motivations.
    • 4/5
      I thoroughly enjoyed this book. Hay's language is beautiful, though like others said, it is pretty advanced and a dictionary is definitely handy to have next to you. While I found her writing style lovely, I did find it incongruous for an 18-20 year old protagonist to speak in such a manner. Now that I think of it, my rating for this novel may simply be because of the language. It was interesting, and I couldn't stop reading, but as others have mentioned the plot sort of ambled along without achieving or revealing any coherent point. I recommend the novel, but I think it is definitely one of those books that people will either like or dislike with little middle ground.
    • 4/5
      I loved this book. I loved being able to be a voyeur in the quirky and fascinating world of the Arcade. It reminded me of a John Irving novel, with extraordinary, well-developed characters. I couldn't put the book down, but was sad when I finished it, always the mark of a good read.
    • 5/5
      i very much liked this book about a very woman from down under who makes her way to NYC. She finds a job in a bookstore, much like I imagine it is to work at Powell's downtown store. Has a number of twists and turns that befall a person adopting a dysfunctional "family". Great curl up Friday night book.
    • 5/5
      This book is a story of lost things, both literally, and in every sense.Rosemary Savage finds herself in New York City, working at a bookstore. The Secret of Lost Things chronicles her time there. Written in first person, it reads like a memoir, written by the now much wiser main character, Rosemary Savage. With literary prose, she tells her coming-of-age story as it leads up to life-altering events that change the way she views the world. The people she encounters seem to all be lost in their own, often strange, ways. Apart from being lost, Rosemary is their common thread. They are not necessarily likable, but the way she sees them is. They all want to teach her something, as if she is the key to being found. There are many parallels between Rosemary’s own journey and those of the people, places, and things around her. I really liked this book. For one thing, it takes place (mostly) in a bookstore, even if it is a strange one. I loved the many references to Shakespeare, among others, and mostly Herman Melville, whose works are much entangled into Rosemary’s story. She finds that he, too, was lost, in a way. I’ve never read Melville, and this left me wanting to read Moby Dick. I think Rosemary did discover the secret of lost things, but I won’t give that away…you’ll have to read it to determine that for yourself.The author did a lot of research for this novel, which gives it validity. She explains her sources in an author’s note at the end, and I appreciate that she points out what is fact and what is fiction, as they are interspersed throughout the novel. Not all authors are as clear on that point…I won’t name names….I would recommend to anyone who likes books about books, with a little mystery and intrigue thrown in among some very colorful (and one not…) characters.It gets a 5 out of 5 from me.
    • 5/5
      I loved this well written book. What better than a book about books. The story was gentle and interesting and I enjoyed reading about the life of an Australian in the USA
    • 3/5
      The main character in this novel, Rosemary moves from Tasmania, Australia to New York after the death of her mother. She has a passion for books and finds a job in a large used bookstore called The Arcade. She makes some friends and becomes involved in some intrigue involving an alleged lost manuscript of Herman Mellville's. This was an enjoyable read and although the plot meanders with a few too many subplots its strength is the quirky characters that inhabit The Arcade. Amongst the mix is an albino bookstore manager, an immigrant woman with a tragic past, the transsexual cashier and Rosemary's infatuation with a man who is obsessed with note taking and trivia but sadly he doesnt feel the same way about her. The writing is quite beautiful and definitely an author to watch and I would recommend this a decent read with characters that linger rather than the story.