Lost - Hans Ulrich Treichel

Lost tells the story of a German family who in the chaos of escaping from the advancing Russian army in 1945 lose their oldest son, Arnold. At the age of eight Arnold's unnamed younger brother the narrator of the novel, watches as his parents attempt to find their lost child, slowly beginning to realise that the person who matters is not him. Finding Arnold is his parents' dream. It is his brother's worst nightmare. As all the reviewers have confirmed, this story has all the elements of a bestseller - funny, deeply moving, at times unsettling and with a tremendous finish.

'Comically tragic with a neat twist on the penultimate page, this is a modern Grimms' fairytale' Sunday Times

'Everything is leavened by a desperate, deadpan humour...the voice is devoid of self-pity, bounciing back with sharp, often witty observations that expose the madness around him' Scotland on Sunday

Hans-Ulrich Treichel is professor of German literature at the University of Leipzig. He has written five volumes of poetry. His first novel, Lost, about a child whose family search for his brother in the aftermath of the Second World War, is published by Picador.