A story of hope and desolation

Lost People, the latest novel by Glenkens-based writer Margaret Elphinstone, is set in a fractured dystopic world but amid trauma and desolation, hope is there to be discovered.

Well known as a historical novelist, Margaret returns in Lost People to the timeless themes of her early writing when living in Laurieston, some 40 years ago. The narrator of her new book is Rue, a lost child abandoned in the garden of a mysterious community, who is forced on a quest through a desolate, war-torn landscape. This is a story of redemption and reassurance that solace can be found, whatever terrors may have to be confronted in the process.

James Robertson (author of And the Land Lay Still) says: “Lost People has a meditative, calming mood and pace despite the fact that things have gone so badly wrong. The writing is beautiful, especially the voice of Rue, the troubled, vulnerable, highly intelligent young person who tells the story. Margaret Elphinstone has created a world simultaneously strange and familiar. It is a novel unlike any I have read for some time.”

Author Margaret Elphinstone at home in the Glenkens countryside

Poet and essayist, Kathleen Jamie, Scotland’s Makar (or poet laureate) says: “Here is a story of trauma, the kindness of strangers and the healing power of animals and plants … Lost People is a gem-like wisdom-tale of perfect clarity and depth.”

Lost People will be published on 21 February by Wild Goose, the publishing house of the Iona Community, priced £7.99.

You can hear Margaret read from the book and discuss the ideas underpinning it with writer Tom Pow at CatStrand, New Galloway, at 7.30pm on Thursday 7 March. Tickets £5 from gcat.scot/arts or 01644 420 374.