Lost and Found: Eight Books about Lost Books and Manuscripts

Cats and books? Yes please. Rintaro Natsuki’s favorite place in the entire world is his grandfather’s bookshop, Natsuki Books. So when his grandfather passes away, it seems inevitable that the bookshop will be sold and Rintaro will stay with his aunt. Bad enough, a strange talking cat named Tiger comes into the shop and insists that Rintaro has to help him save books in strange worlds from people who do not seem to appreciate what they have. The stakes couldn’t be higher: all books are at stake. Can Rintaro find the courage to save the things he loves? It’s a lovely book about the meaning of books and stories, and the challenges of growing up. If you can’t get enough of this book, good news: there is a sequel, The Cat Who Saved the Library.

There are some books that powerful interests don’t want published. In this 2008 Man Asian Literary Prize award-winning debut, Crispin Salvador, known as “The Panther of Philippine Letters,” has just finished The Bridges Ablaze, a book that will bring the secrets of the abuse of power and corruption of Filipino ruling families to light. It is also his attempt to launch himself back into the spotlight after several decades of obscurity. But when his body is found in the Hudson River, his protege Miguel Syjuco thinks Crispin was killed for the book, now missing. Now, Miguel has to dive into the history of his mentor and his country. It tells the story of Crispin through letters, excerpts from memoirs, and his own writing, and takes the reader on 150 years of history, politics, and intrigue.

Imagine if someone found a new Agatha Christie manuscript: that’s the starting place of Spencer’s book. Agatha Dorn, archivist and mystery enthusiast, stumbles across a manuscript by the long-dead Empress of Golden Age detective fiction, Gladden Green. Agatha finds herself the center of fame and fortune as the discoverer of the book until it’s revealed that the book is a forgery. Agatha is angry at being deceived. Worse, she learns that her ex is dead and may be connected to the forgery. Agatha is ready to settle some scores.

After the death of his grandfather, Saul Drower finds a manuscript while cleaning out his home. It appears to be the sequel to Dominican novelist Adana Moreau’s famous science fiction novel, one that everyone thought she’d destroyed the only copy of before her death. So now Saul and a friend decide to find Adana’s son to find out if the manuscript is real and how it ended up in Saul’s grandfather’s things. That quest will take them on a journey to New Orleans, just after Hurricane Katrina.

There’s nothing like a split timeline novel centered on murder and books! Elizabeth Barton was a 16th-century nun whose prophecies got her executed and her body of work destroyed. But Alison Sage, a historian, finds a copy of a manuscript containing the nun’s prophecies, and it makes her career. She’s invited to the prestigious Codex Consortium in a manor house near where Elizabeth lived. But academic jealousies and petty fights turn deadly when someone ends up dead. Now Alison has to find out who is behind the murder, lest she become another victim.

It’s a triple split timeline mystery focused on one book! In 2024 in London, Margo Reynolds is charged with finding a 120-year-old book by Eva Fuentes, an unknown Cuban author. It’s a weird task since Margo has no idea who her client is. But Margo soon learns that someone else is after the book, and it may take all her wits to find it and stay alive. In 1966 in Cuba, Pilar Castillo is trying to free her husband, imprisoned under Fidel Castro’s regime. By day, she’s a librarian who comes into possession of a rare book, which may pose a significant threat to her and her husband. Will she protect the book and free her husband, or die trying? The final time period is set in 1900 Boston, when Cuban teacher Eva Fuentes goes to Harvard University to participate in a big cross-cultural conference and meets someone that alters her life forever.