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Short Synopsis
From beloved author and National Book Award finalist Deb Caletti comes a fresh and luminous novel about the grief that can tear us apart and the people who can make us whole again.

Full Synopsis
There are many ways to be lost.

Sometimes people want to be lost. Madison—Mads to everyone who knows her—is trying her best to escape herself during one last summer away from a mother who needs more from her than she can give, and from a future that has been decided by everyone but her.

Sometimes the lost do the unimaginable, like the woman, the body, Mads collides with in the middle of the water on a traumatic morning that changes everything.

And sometimes the lost are the ones left behind, like the son of the woman in the water, Billy Youngwolf Floyd. Billy is struggling to find his way through each day in the shadow of grief. His one comfort is the map he carries in his pocket, out of his favorite book, The Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler.

When three lives (and one special, shared book) collide, strange things happen. Things like questions and coincidences and secrets, lots of secrets. Things like falling in love. But can two lost people telling so many lies find their way through tragedy to each other and to solid ground?

"C.S.E. Cooney's serious, no-nonsense reading keeps the characters at a distance from each other and portrays their skepticism upon meeting. . . . Listeners looking for hope or coping with depression will appreciate this audiobook." ---School Library Journal Audio Review

"Billy and Mads’s romance is tender and sweet, and Caletti’s lyrical, sometimes witty narration pulls readers close to both teenagers’ tangled emotions in a complex exploration of grief, mental illness, the redemptive power of storytelling, and the hope found in unexpected places." ---Publishers Weekly Starred Review

"A cleareyed story about love and loss, mental illness, and taking charge of one’s own fate." ---Kirkus Starred Review

"Caletti excels at focusing on the perspectives of both young people. . . . Recommend this tale of overcoming the ogres of depression and loss with the saving graces of sustaining relationships and self-discovery." ---School Library Journal Starred Review

"[C.S.E. Cooney's] tone provides needed distance from the intense thoughts of these two lost teens. . . . [Her] reading gains a dynamic quality in the dialogue featured in this quixotic relationship." ---AudioFile
Publishers Weekly Review

Kirkus Review

School Library Journal Review

Essential Maps for the Lost

Author Deb Caletti

Narrated by C.S.E. Cooney

Publication date Aug 9, 2016

Running time 9 hrs 21 min

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