Lorelei's Secret - Hardcover

Carolyn Parkhurst is the author of three novels: Lorelei's Secret (published in the US as The Dogs of Babel) and Lost and Found, which were both New York Times bestsellers, and The Nobodies Album. In 2010, she published her first children's book, Cooking with Henry and Elliebelly, illustrated by Dan Yaccarino. Born in New Hampshire, she lives in Washington, DC with her husband and their two children.

a charming, tender study in grief * Marian Keyes, The Week * Carolyn Parkhurst's startling, achingly compelling first novel ... Part mystery, part thriller and all love story, this is a painfully evocative work, and Parkhurst is that rare thing - a "promising new talent" who turns out to be exactly that * Sunday Business Post * This is the kind of book you stay up all night to finish * Image * Every once in a while a book comes along that knocks you for six. Lorelei's Secret is just such a novel. It made me laugh and cry and most importantly, avidly read until the last page * ABTA * The most unique and imaginative book I have read in recent times. Parkhurst is a wonderful writer and her story is daring, tender and full of surprises as well as wisdom and insight. I simply could not put it down. * John Searles, author of 'Boy Still Missing'; Senio * Shimmers with idiosyncratic intrigue . . . a humanistic parable of the heart's confusions. * Entertainment Weekly * Carolyn Parkhurst's 'Lorelei's Secret' --so luminous, heartbreaking, comic, and daring--is an astonishing debut. Parkhurst writes of love and loss, and, above all, of what we can and cannot know of one another, with power and deeply earned grace. * Richard McCann, author of 'Ghost Letters' * Carolyn Parkhurst writes as well about talking dogs and square eggs as she does about the limits of language and the intractable mysteries of the self. 'Lorelei's Secret' is a strange, beautiful and very moving novel that asks us to look, in equal measure, at the puzzle that is grief and the puzzle that is love. * Elizabeth Graver, author of 'The Honey Thief' and * A quirky and endearing love triangle * Marie Claire (US) * Part love story, part psychological thriller and a thumping good read * Livewire * This tightly woven tale has all the right stuff: romance, suspense, fantasy, and an ending that does not disappoint. * Red magazine (US) * A heartbreaking exploration of memory and language, grief and redemption * Esquire * Wonderfully inventive and slyly funny * Alexei Sayle, Telegraph Book of the Year * Captivatingly strange ... perilously adorable * New York Times * An extraordinarily moving novel, poised halfway between a lament and a mystery ... A novel to be read in one sitting, LORELEI'S SECRET is one of this summer's "must read" books * Big Issue (in the North) * Mesmerising and unusual ... The book is beautifully written and, alongside thriller-like elements, packs a powerful emotional punch * Good Housekeeping * Prepare to have your heart smashed into melancholy pieces * Elle * A shimmering fictional portrait of love and loss * Scotsman * One of those rare novels ... that intrigues, pulls on the heartstrings and confuses you all at once * Time Out * 'If you like a tear-jerker with a twist you'll adore this. In the vein of Maggie O'Farrell's After You'd Gone, it deals with the loss of a loved one' - Glamour Inventive and gripping ... Parkhurst handles the quest formula with originality and humour * Literary Review *