The Missing

I have just finished rereading an excellent book by Andrew O’Hagan which is not just about people who are missing, but people who miss them… or not.

His book ranges from stories of nineteenth century Glasgow, through his own childhood in Scotland to the dreadful murders in Gloucester by Fred and Rosemary West and the abduction of little Jamie Bulger. I had been reminded of this book by someone here on wordpress and I began to think about  missing people, which is something that happens in some of my stories…

In ‘Farholm’ Deke misses her husband because he has died, but when she now remembers him she wonders who he was; she has discovered some of his secrets which changes her memories of him, makes her think about things he said and did in a different light. Before his death she never doubted for one second that he loved her… when she finds out the truth about him it destroys this certainty; the man she loved has gone missing, not just physically because he has died but from her in a more essential way because she no longer knows him. In the light of the terrible scandal now emerging about Jimmy Savile, the idea of truth hijacking the past resonates with me.

At the start of my novel ‘The Stalking of Rosa Czekov’, Rosa has gone and her husband and friends are bereaved; as the narrative unfolds it becomes clear to the reader that Rosa was essentially a very different person from what anyone who knew her understood. Her cousin Tyche who bounds into the story and disrupts the lives of the characters is a mystery, her past is missing but she is cunning enough to conceal that; she is driven by the idea that someone was stalking Rosa, and determined to find that missing person and bring them to justice and maybe retribution.

In my next novel, which I hope to publish on October 28th, Judah Whitamore goes missing on his gap year in Kashmir .. and when he is found he is still missing because it is only his body which returns to his grieving parents, Judah has been killed. His father and step-mother are riven by his death, they have lost not just their beloved child but something else from their lives and for them the story of ‘Loving Judah’ is that of a search for what is missing. Peter Whitamore travels to India, his wife Aislin goes to Cornwall. Another character, Bavol has had his secrets publicly revealed, he has not only ruined his future, but tarnished his past. Ailsin looks at some photos of him:

then the full page photos where his eyes weren’t focused, where he was staring into the pit of shame of his own making, his golden future tarnishing before him. He looked scared and sick and full of horror. None of what was said was as bad as what he thought of himself.

I really recommend O’Hagan’s book… I’ve just finished it and it has triggered so many thoughts and ideas, given me such inspiration, not least to go back to half-finished novel titled “Missing… Presumed…”