The Things That We Lost by Jyoti Patel is a moving coming-of-age story exploring what it means to be a person of colour in Britain today, discussing themes of identity and the stories that we tell ourselves to manage trauma. Nik yearns to know more about his father, who died before he was born. His mother, Avani, held hostage by her guilt surrounding his death, refuses to share any information with her son. Nik is forced to create a fragmented image of his father, pulled together from hushed whispers at family gatherings and photos stolen from his mother’s bedroom. When his grandfather dies, secrets are revealed, and everything Nik thinks he knows about his father is turned on its head. Nik makes it his mission to discover the truth about his father and the circumstances of his death, uncovering painful truths in the process.
The Things That We Lost is the winner of the 2021 Merky Books New Writers Prize