The Things That We Lost is an oh so wonderfully nuanced new literary fiction debut by Jyoti Patel, soon to be published by Merky Books.

That’s not to say that this book is all sweetness and light, at all. We learn that Avani was abused by her mother, and Elliot was mistreated by both of his parents. These scenes, as well those where Nik faces racism when he goes away to university outside of London, are uncomfortable to read, but necessarily so. Incredibly moving, this is an immersive novel focusing on grief but also love and relationships. I fell in love with Avani and Nik, characters so real I could hardly believe they're fictional. Jyoti Patel is a hugely exciting new writer.' - Louise Hare, author of This Lovely City and Miss Aldridge Regrets Narrated from the dual perspectives of 18 year old Nikhil (Nik) and his mother Avani, the novel switches between the past and present. And we are with Nik every step of the way as following the loss of his beloved grandfather, he tries to piece together the events surrounding his father's death.Other crucial sections are set in 1998 when in less than 2 months Avani loses her strict mother (with who she has a very difficult relationship only partly mediated by her beloved Dad) and before that Elliott in some form of (for much of the book) unspecified incident. I spent a lot of time with them, about four years. Even when I wasn’t writing or editing the novel for months on end during that time, I was still thinking about my characters, wondering how they would react in certain moments, wondering what they’d say to each other.

It was released on DVD and HD DVD on March 4, 2008. A Blu-ray version was released on March 24, 2009. I found the mystery of Elliot utterly compelling - in fact, I think I may have become almost as desperate for answers, and frustrated with Avani for not providing them, as Nik was! Even so, by the end, I could totally see why Avani behaved the way she did, as a result of blaming herself as well as wanting to protect her child from distressing knowledge. The version I read of this book is an uncorrected proof, so my opinion may be based on elements that will not be present in the final version. The Things That We Have Lost" follows the lives of mother & son, Avani & Nikhil. Following the devastating loss of their beloved Dad/Grandad, secrets from Avani's past stirs up a desire within Nikhil to learn more about his deceased father, much to Avani's dismay. The story is told over the course of the 80s, early 90s & the present day. The reader is taken through the whirlwind of Avani's teenage years, her marriage, the untimely death of her husband, her grief & the loss of her father. Avani's story is beautifully interwoven with Nikhil's story which is essentially a coming of age story; The difficulties of navigating race, belonging, grief, mental health & relationships. The wide expanse of life was waiting for them, yet unwritten, and so gloriously full of possibility."With Nik, he’s mixed race, he’s British Gujarati. So I also wanted to look at the silence surrounding mental health that has historically affected British men, and then also the silence surrounding mental health in Gujarati and South Asian cultures. I wanted to have a marriage of those two things in this character, and see what happens when you have a young man struggling with his mental health who has grown up in two cultures that reduce his ability to talk about it. This novel follows the Lees, a Chinese American family living in Ohio in the 1970s. In the opening lines, the omniscient narrator declares: “Lydia is dead. But they don’t know this yet.” Lydia is the middle child, the favourite, whose body is soon to be found in a nearby lake. The narrator moves between the perspectives of each family member, weaving together the secrets each holds, allowing the reader to see the misunderstandings and miscommunications between them as they grapple with their grief and the mystery of Lydia’s death. This book was featured in the 2023 version of the influential annual Observer Best Debut Novelist feature (past years have included Natasha Brown, Caleb Azumah Nelson, Douglas Stuart, Sally Rooney, Rebecca Watson, Yara Rodrigues Fowler, JR Thorp Bonnie Garmus, Gail Honeyman among many others).