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Signs for Lost Children
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Published:
Europa 2017
Status:
Available from OverDrive
Description
Shortlisted for the Wellcome Prize for Historical Fiction
Award-winning author Sarah Moss's most recent work of historical fiction is a portrait of a young couple's unconventional marriage as it's tested by separate quests for identity in work and life. Set in the Victorian Age, Signs for Lost Children grapples with central themes of early feminism, mental health reform, and marriage as an imposed institution.
Ally Moberly, a recently qualified doctor, never expected to marry until she met Tom Cavendish. Only weeks into their marriage, Tom sets out for Japan, leaving Ally as she begins work at the Truro Asylum in Cornwall. Horrified by the brutal attitudes of male doctors and nurses toward their female patients, Ally plunges into the institutional politics of women's mental health at a time when madness is only just being imagined as treatable. She has to contend with a longstanding tradition of permanently institutionalizing women who are deemed difficult, all the while fighting to to be taken seriously as a rare woman in a profession dominated by men. Tom, an architect, has been employed to oversee the building of Japanese lighthouses. He also has a commission from a wealthy collector to bring back embroideries and woodwork. As he travels Japan in search of these enchanting objects, he begins to question the value of the life he left in England. As Ally becomes increasingly absorbed in the moral importance of her work, and Tom pursues his intellectual interests on the other side of the world, they will return to each other as different people.
With her artful blend of emotional insight and narrative skill, Sarah Moss creates an entrancing novel sure to draw critical acclaim. From the blustery coast of Western England to the towns and cities of Japan, she constructs distinct but conjoined portraits of two remarkable people in a swiftly changing world.
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Format:
Adobe EPUB eBook, Kindle Book, OverDrive Read
Street Date:
04/11/2017
Language:
English
ISBN:
9781609453800
ASIN:
B079MJ4J56
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Citations
APA Citation (style guide)

Sarah Moss. (2017). Signs for Lost Children. Europa.

Chicago / Turabian - Author Date Citation (style guide)

Sarah Moss. 2017. Signs for Lost Children. Europa.

Chicago / Turabian - Humanities Citation (style guide)

Sarah Moss, Signs for Lost Children. Europa, 2017.

MLA Citation (style guide)

Sarah Moss. Signs for Lost Children. Europa, 2017.

Note! Citation formats are based on standards as of July 2022. Citations contain only title, author, edition, publisher, and year published. Citations should be used as a guideline and should be double checked for accuracy.
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Shared Digital Collection11
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Grouped Work ID:
b0d7f495-c7e3-f489-1eb3-0ba7241b0c12
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Needs Update?:
No
Date Added:
Jun 12, 2018 18:42:06
Date Updated:
Jun 12, 2018 18:42:06
Last Metadata Check:
Mar 24, 2024 10:13:41
Last Metadata Change:
Jun 04, 2023 15:58:12
Last Availability Check:
Mar 24, 2024 10:13:44
Last Availability Change:
Jan 15, 2024 06:11:57
Last Grouped Work Modification Time:
Mar 27, 2024 02:11:40

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fullDescription
Shortlisted for the Wellcome Prize for Historical Fiction
Award-winning author Sarah Moss's most recent work of historical fiction is a portrait of a young couple's unconventional marriage as it's tested by separate quests for identity in work and life. Set in the Victorian Age, Signs for Lost Children grapples with central themes of early feminism, mental health reform, and marriage as an imposed institution.
Ally Moberly, a recently qualified doctor, never expected to marry until she met Tom Cavendish. Only weeks into their marriage, Tom sets out for Japan, leaving Ally as she begins work at the Truro Asylum in Cornwall. Horrified by the brutal attitudes of male doctors and nurses toward their female patients, Ally plunges into the institutional politics of women's mental health at a time when madness is only just being imagined as treatable. She has to contend with a longstanding tradition of permanently institutionalizing women who are deemed difficult, all the while fighting to to be taken seriously as a rare woman in a profession dominated by men. Tom, an architect, has been employed to oversee the building of Japanese lighthouses. He also has a commission from a wealthy collector to bring back embroideries and woodwork. As he travels Japan in search of these enchanting objects, he begins to question the value of the life he left in England. As Ally becomes increasingly absorbed in the moral importance of her work, and Tom pursues his intellectual interests on the other side of the world, they will return to each other as different people.
With her artful blend of emotional insight and narrative skill, Sarah Moss creates an entrancing novel sure to draw critical acclaim. From the blustery coast of Western England to the towns and cities of Japan, she constructs distinct but conjoined portraits of two remarkable people in a swiftly changing world.
reviews
      • premium: True
      • source: Kirkus
      • content:

        January 15, 2017
        For Ally Moberley, a pioneering woman doctor in Victorian England who has just made a happy marriage, the future seems bright until the groundbreaking nature of her role, working with mentally troubled female patients, and a return to the stresses of her childhood begin to threaten her own peace of mind.Matching exceptionally fine prose with pinpoint sensitivity, British novelist Moss (Bodies of Light, 2014, etc.) delivers a thoughtful account of one intelligent, sometimes-fragile woman's response to a dark, dynamic era. Late-19th-century England thrums with industry, yet the living conditions of its workers are often desperate. Though Ally's mother was zealously devoted to serving the poor, she lacked compassion for her own children, and Ally, now 30, bears the psychic scars of a cruel childhood. She graduated top of her class from medical school, however, and is newly married to Tom Cavendish, a kindly engineer and lighthouse builder. After a brief period of marital harmony in Cornwall, Tom must depart on a monthslong working trip to Japan, leaving Ally alone, first studying at a local mental asylum and later returning to the harsh family home in Manchester. Chapters narrated in a close third-person from Ally's perspective, tracing her professional and personal challenges, are intercut with chapters following Tom, who finds himself increasingly enraptured by Japanese culture. Whether evoking Cornish weather, Manchester's manufacturing grind, or exquisite Japanese vistas, Moss brings lambent detail and humane character analysis to a larger conversation about what threatens women's sanity--grief, rage, pain, sick households, abusive men. Though too long, slowed by its seriousness and research, and then lifted by a rather-too-neat solution to Ally's health and employment dilemmas, this is nevertheless a rich work; the quality of its writing and its empathy shine through. A delicate, forgiving consideration of mental health and healing.

        COPYRIGHT(2017) Kirkus Reviews, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

      • premium: True
      • source: Booklist
      • content:

        March 15, 2017
        Moss' historical novel is a lush, descriptive story of a marriage tested by separation and the limitations of Victorian society. Ally Moberly has recently become a doctor and married Tom Cavendish, who appreciates her brain and independence. Shortly after their wedding, Tom departs on a work assignment to Japan, leaving Ally just as she begins working at an asylum in Cornwall. Ally faces discrimination as a female doctor, which is exacerbated by her questioning the institutionalization of women under the umbrella of hysteria. Additionally, she is haunted by her own time spent in an asylum receiving painful treatments. Tom, though he faces difficulties in Japan, starts to fall in love with the country and its customs. Chapters alternate between Ally and Tom's stories as they grow apart emotionally, she retreating into her mind and he into his environment. Moss' writing reflects the times, with beautiful, dense language and a leisurely pace. Pair it with Wendy Wallace's The Painted Bridge (2012) for a rich portrait of women and mental illness in the Victorian Age.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2017, American Library Association.)

popularity
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Shortlisted for the Wellcome Prize for Historical Fiction
Award-winning author Sarah Moss's most recent work of historical fiction is a portrait of a young couple's unconventional marriage as it's tested by separate quests for identity in work and life. Set in the Victorian Age, Signs for Lost Children grapples with central themes of early feminism, mental health reform, and marriage as an imposed institution.
Ally Moberly, a recently qualified doctor, never expected to marry until she met Tom Cavendish. Only weeks into their marriage, Tom sets out for Japan, leaving Ally as she begins work at the Truro Asylum in Cornwall. Horrified by the brutal attitudes of male doctors and nurses toward their female patients, Ally plunges into the institutional politics of women's mental health at a time when madness is only just being imagined as treatable. She has to contend with a longstanding tradition of permanently institutionalizing women who are deemed difficult,...
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