NEW BRUM AUTHOR BOOKS RAVE REVIEW

29-01-2007

Debutant Birmingham author Catherine O'Flynn has just received her first coverage in the national press, earning a rave review in The Observer for her novel "What Was Lost". O'Flynn can be seen reading extractson Stirrer TV.

The book is set against the backdrop of a fictional West Midlands shopping centre - O'Flynn herself used to work at Merry Hill - and focuses on the disappearance of ten-year old girl who used to fancy herself as a tweeny Sam Spade.

Time-shifting from the 80's to the present day, it's both a detective novel and a reflection on music, consumerism and relationships.

According to The Observer, it's an “enthralling tale of a little girl lost wrapped in a changing portrait of a changing community over two decades.”

The paper goes on to praise O'Flynn's “emotional articulacy, which captures life's sad strange absurdities and glosses them with a new kind of nobility.”

To add to our sense of local pride, the book is published by the Birmingham-based Tindal Street Press.

Speaking to The Stirrer, O'Flynn said that she had known the review was due to appear, but wasn't sure what it would say.

“I was anxious about but I'm really pleased with how it turned out. I don't know how that will transate to sales, but it can only be positive.”

And with that she had to go - dealing with the queuinghordes in her day job working at the box-office in The Midlands Arts Centre.

Check out an interview with Catherine O'Flynn and see her reading extracts from “What Was Lost” here. It's available now in all good bookshops.