This is an immensely impressive achievement. It is empathetic,challenging and sensitive. The photographer is the only one of three brothers to survive the First World War. One of his two dead brothers cannot be traced. Is he dead? Hiding? Sick? The surviving brother,Harry,a professional photographer combines his job of recording graves and battlefields as souvenirs for surviving relatives with his mission to find out what happened to his lost brother . That part of the story is enriched by his love for the widow. We are used to many books about the war but this one remembers that those who were killed did not have to suffer the loneliness,the guilt,the responsibility for fatherless children which became the burden of those who survived. Their distress lasted often for decades. This book mingles history with a family suspense superbly well. Its historical accuracy demonstrates painstaking research. The writing brings to life events now in history books. The book is a very clever take on post war history,exceedingly well delivered. I strongly recommend it.

An unusual story of a ww1 widow who receives a photo of her dead husband in the post with no note. She heads to France to try and find him as does his brother. Moving and compelling reading.

While the 14-18 Commemorations are now over and once more WW1 fades back in peoples' conciousness this book seemed timely as it contends with the what next.

The idea of how people coped just post war with only a 'missing believed killed' status for their loved ones must have been terrible and Scott does portray this well. I also like the idea of a photographer trying to work out how to document the devastated areas in France and Belgium so to bring comfort to the families.

For me the book was let down a little early on by the main character hearing music from her neighbour's wireless in 1921 when broadcast radio in the UK didn't launch until 1922. This jarring historical point then made me doubt more of the book.

I'd also have liked to hear from from those involved in the IWGC (CWGC) as well as the private cemeteries and those working in them.

For me this was an ok read, but that like those feeling uncertain and lost in 1921, I came away feeling a little dissatisfied and wanting more. I will be recommending the book as I'd love to discuss it more with other readers, and I am aware that after 5 years working on a WW1 Commemoration project I may not be quite the reader for this book.

When I think about the period between the wars, I tend to think of Bright Young Things, cocktails and jazz, Bertie Wooster, Jarrow and depression, The Remains of the Day, people moving on in every way from the WW1, in hemlines and music and food and social mores. Golden Age crime and glamorous rail travel, cucumber sandwiches and red lipstick. I don't think about what it must have been like picking up the pieces after four years of devastation. At least, I hadn't until I read The Photographer of the Lost, sent to me as an ARC by the publishers.
There is nothing glamorous in this world of broken men and searching widows. It's a world of iron filled battlefields, graves and debris, of villages and towns turned to rubble, shanty towns sprouting in the midst as villagers try and rebuild, dusty boarding houses with paper thin walls and peeling paint, filled with the first of the battle ground tourists, some already consumed by curiosity, others just consumed.
Harry joined up in 2016 along with his two brothers. The sole survivor he now travels northern France and Belgium, taking photographs of graves and battle sights to send to bereaved families, enabling them to have closure in a time before mass travel made the pilgrimage possible to all. Part pilgrim, part chronicler, he still has nightmares of his own time in the trenches he travels. Meanwhile his sister in law, Edie, has become convinced her missing husband Francis is still alive and charges Harry to find either his grave or find him, impatiently journeying to Ypres herself on a quest to find out what happened to the golden haired boy she loved and hoe he turned into the dead eyed man she lost.
The Photographer of the Lost is an extraordinary odyssey through broken lands and broken lives as memorials are erected in bereaved villages and photographs displayed in bereaved houses. Set in both 1921 and during 2016/2017 we experience the truth of Harry's war and the truth of his atonement as he struggles to come to terms with his brothers' deaths and his own survival. Taut, elegant and evocative, it's a haunting look at grief and the very human need for closure. Highly recommended.

Thank you to Caroline Scott, Simon and Schuster and Net Galley for my ARC Of Photographer of the Lost.
This is an amazing debut, an incredibly moving story of a young woman, Edie, whose devastating story of love and loss was no doubt repeated time and time again; a loved one who was missing belived dead on the battlefields of WWI France.
The author takes us on a heart-rending journey from England to the battlefields of 1914 - 1918, where now stand rows upon rows of crosses, the graves of the fallen that Harry, Francis' brother photographs for the fallen soldier's relatives...but Francis' grave is not amongst them. Was Edie's husband killed or is he missing, wandering France not knowing who he is or why he is there?
A wonderful story of love, bravery, and forgiveness.