"From the author of the "dazzling. . . . and daring" Pond (O magazine), the adventures of a young woman discovering her own genius, through the people she meets-and dreams up-along the way. In a working-class town in a county west of London, a schoolgirl scribbles in the back pages of her exercise book, thrilling to the first sparks of her own inventiveness. As she grows, she becomes one on whom nothing is lost. Not the novels an eccentric customer...

In 1974 Wales, thirteen-year-old Petra and her best friend Sharon are madly in love with David Cassidy and enter a contest whose winners will be flown to America to meet him. In 1998 London, Petra is on the brink of a divorce. While cleaning out her mother's closet, she finds the letter her mother intercepted declaring her the winner of the Cassidy contest. After 24 years, the girls head to Las Vegas to meet their teen idol.

"Lil and Frank married young, having bonded over how they both lost a parent when they were children. Over time, their marriage grew and strengthened, with each still wishing for so much more understanding of the parents they'd lost prematurely. Now, after many years in Boston, they have retired in North Carolina. There, Lil, determined to leave a history for their children, sifts through letters and notes and diary entries - perhaps revealing more...