Amanda Craig

Lost to addiction: Loved and Missed, by Susie Boyt, reviewed

Ruth struggles in vain to rescue her daughter from heroin, so tries to save her baby granddaughter instead — or is little Lily saving her?

[Alamy] 
issue 11 September 2021
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  • Loved and Missed

    Susie Boyt

    Virago, pp. 198, £16

Ruth, the narrator of Susie Boyt’s seventh novel, is both the child of a single mother and a single mother herself. Intelligent, quirky and despairingly fastidious, she has tried to bring up her adored daughter in loving orderliness, but the results have been disastrous. By 15, the beautiful, gifted Eleanor is a heroin addict, living in filth and chaos.

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