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A boy wanders the streets, his Walkman looping a piece by Philip Glass. A son cuts ties with his father over a misguided birthday gift. A loose circle of acquaintances shares memories of the same deceased friend, each from their own perspective, as if speaking him back into being. A woman wants to discuss the upcoming election with her neighbours, but ends up tied to a chair with a garden hose. And then there’s the boy who, as a child, finds an old, battered scrapbook in his grandfather’s attic – and goes looking for it again years later. Meanwhile, a factory quietly leaks toxic chemicals into the soil of a town that has long depended on it for survival.

Evan Dara’s The Lost Scrapbook is a novel like a current: voices come and go, stories interlace, perspectives shift without warning. Together, they form a polyphonic portrait of a community in flux – a sweeping search for what disappears, and for what, despite everything, still connects us.

Evan Dara is an American author of four novels and two plays, whose work is often compared to that of novelists such as William Gaddis, Thomas Pynchon, and David Foster Wallace. Shunning publicity, he has nonetheless built a passionate following among readers and writers alike.

Press

“Monumental, cunning, heartfelt and unforgiving… Dara shows how a novel can be experimental, yet moral, rule-breaking but emotional, and post-humanist while remaining deeply human. A vast accomplishment.” – Richard Powers

“It takes some work to look back at The Lost Scrapbook and say, ‘Aha, so that’s how all those parts fit together,’ and then ‘Aaah,’ which signifies satisfaction or, with a different spelling, awe.” – The Washington Post

“Powerful, hysterically funny and evocative. Stretches the boundaries of what novels can be and mean.” – The Los Angeles Reader

“A towering piece of American literature and one of the best three novels of the nineties.” – The Fictional Woods

“The best-kept secret in all of contemporary American literature.” – Emmet Stinson (University of Tasmania)

Beschrijving

A boy wanders the streets, his Walkman looping a piece by Philip Glass. A son cuts ties with his father over a misguided birthday gift. A loose circle of acquaintances shares memories of the same deceased friend, each from their own perspective, as if speaking him back into being. A woman wants to discuss the upcoming election with her neighbours, but ends up tied to a chair with a garden hose. And then there’s the boy who, as a child, finds an old, battered scrapbook in his grandfather’s attic – and goes looking for it again years later. Meanwhile, a factory quietly leaks toxic chemicals into the soil of a town that has long depended on it for survival.

Evan Dara’s The Lost Scrapbook is a novel like a current: voices come and go, stories interlace, perspectives shift without warning. Together, they form a polyphonic portrait of a community in flux – a sweeping search for what disappears, and for what, despite everything, still connects us.

Evan Dara is an American author of four novels and two plays, whose work is often compared to that of novelists such as William Gaddis, Thomas Pynchon, and David Foster Wallace. Shunning publicity, he has nonetheless built a passionate following among readers and writers alike.

Press

“Monumental, cunning, heartfelt and unforgiving… Dara shows how a novel can be experimental, yet moral, rule-breaking but emotional, and post-humanist while remaining deeply human. A vast accomplishment.” – Richard Powers

“It takes some work to look back at The Lost Scrapbook and say, ‘Aha, so that’s how all those parts fit together,’ and then ‘Aaah,’ which signifies satisfaction or, with a different spelling, awe.” – The Washington Post

“Powerful, hysterically funny and evocative. Stretches the boundaries of what novels can be and mean.” – The Los Angeles Reader

“A towering piece of American literature and one of the best three novels of the nineties.” – The Fictional Woods

“The best-kept secret in all of contemporary American literature.” – Emmet Stinson (University of Tasmania)

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