Summary and reviews of Lost Luggage by Jordi Punti

About this book

Summary

Book Summary

The prize-winning debut novel from a major new talent in Catalan literature - the story of four half-brothers who only discover the others' existence when the father who abandoned them all is reported missing.

Christof, Christophe, Christopher, and Cristòfol are four brothers - sons of the same father and four very different mothers, yet none of them knows about the existence of the others. They live in Frankfurt, Paris, London, and Barcelona and they unwittingly share the fact that their father, Gabriel Delacruz - a truck driver - abandoned them when they were little and they never heard from him again.

Then one day, Cristòfol is contacted by the police: his father is officially a missing person. This fact leads him to discover that he has three half-brothers, and the four young men come together for the first time. Two decades have passed since their father last saw any of them. They barely remember what he was like, but they decide to look for him to resolve their doubts. Why did he abandon them? Why do all four have the same name? Did he intend for them to meet?

Divided by geography yet united by blood, the "Cristobales" set out on a quest that is at once painful, hilarious, and extraordinary. They discover a man who during thirty years of driving was able to escape the darkness of Franco's Spain and to explore a luminous Europe, a journey that, with the birth of his sons, both opened and broke his heart.

Paperback Original

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Media Reviews

"Punti delivers a richly told literary novel about four half brothers in search of their father… The characters' wit and the author's vivid imagination shine through in this beautiful translation from Catalan." - Kirkus

"The spark of magical realism enlivens Punti's debut novel about four abandoned sons... [A] successful experiment in perspective, made lively by Punti's extensive knowledge of the landscapes of Europe." - Publishers Weekly "Inventive, absorbing and beautifully written." - The Daily Mail

"A remarkable work of literary fiction that also manages to be unputdownable." - London Review of Books

"A funny, moving and poignant exploration of identity, home, family and freedom." - The Daily Express

"Lost Luggage is an astonishing literary artifact. Marvellous." - El Mundo

"A conjuring trick. Incomparable literature." - El País

"A book as extraordinary as it is memorable. Jordi Puntí already belongs to the noble tradition of the great storytellers." - Rock de Lux

"A novel with an uncommon brilliance, confirming Puntí's talent." - El Cultural

"Characters with great literary force; they represent the power of fiction when facing history." - Culturas de La Vanguardia

"Pure life, intense and passionate. A thorough and precise creation, very near perfection… one can only surrender to the utter force of the story." - Qué Leer

This information about Lost Luggage was first featured in "The BookBrowse Review" - BookBrowse's membership magazine, and in our weekly "Publishing This Week" newsletter. Publication information is for the USA, and (unless stated otherwise) represents the first print edition. The reviews are necessarily limited to those that were available to us ahead of publication. If you are the publisher or author and feel that they do not properly reflect the range of media opinion now available, send us a message with the mainstream reviews that you would like to see added.

Any "Author Information" displayed below reflects the author's biography at the time this particular book was published.

Reader Reviews

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Naomi B. (Tucson, AZ)

Four Brothers Search for a Father
Jordi Punti's Lost Luggage, translated from the Spanish by Julie Wark, reminds me of those nested Russian dolls; open a layer of the story and inside is another layer, couching another, and so on, until you get to the tale's vibrant, pulsing heart. Lost Luggage is storytelling at its best. On the surface, it is the quest of four brothers--each named some variable form of Christopher--for a father they have each barely known. Although he has always been missing from their lives, he has now gone officially missing, and the brothers believe that by piecing together the story of his life from their disparate points of view, the completed puzzle may lead to the discovery of the man. What is interesting to me is that even though the story is told in sections from each of the four Christophers' points of view, there is very little variation in voice between them. The decision is clearly deliberate, as if each brother is a piece of clay cleaved from the same block. The result is a novel that unfurls slowly, quietly, and gracefully toward that golden moment of denouement. As if we sit with Jordi Punti at a crackling fire, listening to hims spin his tale, we wait for that moment spellbound. We know it is coming, but we know, too, that it will surprise us, a sleight of hand delivered by a master magician.

Sherrie R. (Fort Worth, TX)

Pack your bags, take a trip in this engrossing and absorbing story!
This is a wonderful story about 4 brothers with the same father and four mothers. Their father was only in their lives briefly when they were young. Travel with them as they find each other and begin their search for their father in an intriguing journey through Europe, full of mysteries and childhood memories. Who was their father? Where was he? Why did he leave? What happened to him? Will they find him? How do they feel?
I loved it- reminded me of Shadow of the Wind, Cutting for Stone, Stone's Fall. It's themes of identity, broken families, value and influence of work, friends, and loss wrapped up in the framework of a grand mystery is perfect for book club discussions.

Adelia S. (Livingston, MT)

Lost Luggage
I really liked this book. The stories of the four Christophers kept me wanting more. I found it helpful to make a list of each Christopher's birth and city. The relationship between Gabriel and the house movers was special. Lost Luggage was a very different, great book. I will read it again soon.

John P. (Timonium, MD)

Lost Luggage
Christof, Christophe,, Christopher and Cristofol take us on an amazing journey that introduce to Senyora Giuditta and through her their father Gabriel Delacruz. The history, culture and fascinating turns through dark alleys, barrooms and interesting apartments as well as travel through tunnels that take you from one culture to another will keep the reader intrigued and wondering where it will take them.

Christine B. (St. Paul, MN)

Lost Luggage
I absolutely loved the four "Christophers". This novel dissects the unusual and enigmatic relationship between Gabriel Delacruz and his four sons and their four respective mothers. I thought that all the secondary characters totally added to the overall charm of the story. The authors verbiage is extraordinary at conveying the ordinary man who encounters tragedy, comedy and pathos in his life. The mystery the four sons pursue in locating their father is interesting mostly because we learn the "story" of everyone involved, including the four delightful mothers. I think this book would generate a lot of interesting discussion.

Terrie J. (Eagan, MN)

Interesting story line...
This book kept my interest, but was slow at times. I liked the concept of the story line and the fact that the brothers joined together to find out what happened to their father. I felt that jumping between past and present got confusing at times. I would recommend this book to others.

...11 more reader reviews

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