Madeline Cash – författare

The funny and compassionate new literary novel that turns family dysfunction into an art form.'A voice like no other' Lena Dunham, award-winning writer, director and creator of comedy-drama Girls'Loud, hilarious, shocking and sensitive' Megan Nolan, prize-listed author of Acts of Desperation'You finish the book with the kind of smile on your face that contemporary fiction rarely leaves you with. Lost Lambs is a perky, fiendishly readable debut.' Financial TimesFor the three Flynn daughters, it's been disastrous since their parents opened up their marriage. Abigail, the eldest, is dating an ex-soldier several years her senior nicknamed 'War Crimes Wes'. Louise, the middle child, maintains a secret correspondence with an online terrorist. And the brilliant youngest, Harper, is being sent to a wilderness reform camp due to her insistence that someone - or something - is monitoring the town's citizens.Casting a shadow across their lives is Paul Alabaster, a nefarious local billionaire. Rumours of corruption circulate, but no one dares dig too deep. No one except Harper, whose obsession with Alabaster's machinations sends the family hurtling into a criminal conspiracy - one that may just, finally, bring them closer together.Rippling with humour, warmth and style, Lost Lambs turns family dysfunction into an art form.Praise for Lost Lambs:'Goes off like a firework. As sincere as it is funny (and it's very funny)' Ramona Ausubel, bestselling author of The Last Animal'A great, great American novel' Samantha Hunt, Women's Prize longlisted author of The Seas'A dazzling and singular new voice in literary fiction... Loud, hilarious, shocking, and sensitive' Megan Nolan, award-winning author of Ordinary Human Failings'With a big surge of energy, Lost Lambs splits the nucleus of the American family' Tony Tulathimutte, author of Rejection - National Book Award Finalist'Madeline Cash is a humourist in the darkly humanist tradition of George Saunders and Lorrie Moore, of Vonnegut and Twain' Tim Kreider, author of We Learn Nothing'Immersive and propulsive and I never wanted it to end. I can't remember the last time a novel made me laugh so hard or feel so much tenderness for its characters... I loved it. I devoured it' Leslie Jamison, author of Splinters

Rippling with humor, warmth, and style, Lost Lambs is a new vision of the charms and pitfalls of family dysfunction. The Flynn family is coming undone. Catherine and Bud''s open marriage has reached its breaking point as their daughters spiral in their own chaotic orbits: Abigail, the eldest, is dating a man in his twenties nicknamed War Crime Wes; Louise, the middle child, maintains a secret correspondence with an online terrorist; the brilliant youngest, Harper, is being sent to wilderness reform camp due to her insistence that someone—or something—is monitoring the town’s citizens.Casting a shadow across their lives, and their small coastal town, is Paul Alabaster, a billionaire shipping magnate. Rumors of corruption circulate, but no one dares dig too deep. No one except Harper, whose obsession with a mysterious shipping container sends the family hurtling into a criminal conspiracy—one that may just bring them closer together.Irreverent and addictive, pinging between the voices of the Flynn family and those of the panorama of characters around them, Madeline Cash’s Lost Lambs is a debut novel of quick-witted observation and surprising tenderness. With Lost Lambs, Cash has crafted a family saga for the twenty-first century, all held together with crazy glue.

Brought to you by Penguin.The Flynns are not alright.It’s been disastrous since Bud and Catherine opened up their marriage, and none of the Flynns can remember the last time a meal was cooked, a load of laundry done, or a social code abided by. Their daughters spiral in their own chaotic orbits: Abigail, the eldest, is dating a man in his twenties nicknamed War Crime Wes; Louise, the middle child, maintains a secret correspondence with an online terrorist; the brilliant youngest, Harper, is being sent to wilderness reform camp due to her insistence that someone – or something – is monitoring the town’s citizens.Casting a shadow across their lives, and their small coastal town, is Paul Alabaster, a nefarious local billionaire. Rumours of corruption circulate, but no one dares dig too deep. No one except Harper, whose obsession with Alabaster’s machinations sends the family hurtling into a criminal conspiracy – one that may just, finally, bring them closer together.This is an original, funny and compassionate portrait of the perverse pleasures and perils of our most intimate reality: our family.© Madeline Cash 2025 (P) Penguin Audio 2025