The Lost Ticket by Freya Sampson: Shaped as a fairly stock-standard middle class English girl, 
Libby’s life plan goes pear shaped when boyfriend of 8 years Simon embraces his ‘self-discovery’ mission – aka, had an affair and kicked her out. Thinking temporarily, Libby is quickly ushered out by her judgmental mother to her sister Rebecca’s house, and as fate would have it, Libby meets Frank via route 88 whose narrative becomes a game changer.
Conveniently embraced by Rebecca when her nanny goes awol, Libby finds herself single, homeless, jobless and effectively aimless until Frank’s grand love affair narrative strikes a cord. Unknowingly, Libby finds purpose in re-writing history and indeed figuring out what love means in the most philanthropic of ways. More importantly, her one quintessential conversation with Frank demands she questions her life choices, and after having given up her artistry for her medical degree to please her parents, Libby wonders if she can remain meek in the hopes and dreams of others or perhaps can dare to embrace a punk style paradigm with a bloke fitting that bill to exist in her truth.
This honest and earnest love story does its best to unpack assumptions and misunderstandings whilst jumping into some heady themes of dementia, Alzheimer’s, betrayal, social class para-culture and personal truth. From the onset there was little to dislike about Libby; unassuming, hopeful and meek, and whilst she gets done over a few times, she shows a bit of gumption throughout the journey to give faith that she is not a total shoe-over.
After hitting her rock bottom, it is really quite beautiful that she finds herself immersed in the world of a truly eclectic bunch of characters who unseemingly band together, inspired by Frank’s love story, and indeed bus route 88. So much so, that Libby even dabbles for a moment thinking that she can recreate her own artistry by drawing on the bus picking of course the most hostile of all subjects – Dylan, who also happens to be Frank’s carer.
The love in this ditty is in abundance, and it’s difficult to avoid the deep expression of it as it exists on every level. And despite the assumptions and misunderstandings, it presents a truly fairy-tale reality of love that feels deserving and worthy. And thus, this one is hard to shy away from. Hence, I highly recommend a comfy couch and a good cuppa because in many ways love can’t resist, and even if it finds a way to, it will always find a heart who is listening.
Book Info:
Publication: 30th August 2022 | Berkley |
When Libby Nicholls arrives in London, brokenhearted and with her life in tatters, the first person she meets on the bus is elderly Frank. He tells her about the time in 1962 that he met a girl on the number 88 bus with beautiful red hair just like hers. They made plans for a date at the National Gallery art museum, but Frank lost the bus ticket with her number on it. For the past sixty years, he’s ridden the same bus trying to find her, but with no luck.
Libby is inspired to action and, with the help of an unlikely companion, she papers the bus route with posters advertising their search. Libby begins to open her guarded heart to new friendships and a budding romance, as her tightly controlled world expands. But with Frank’s dementia progressing quickly, their chance of finding the girl on the 88 bus is slipping away.
More than anything, Libby wants Frank to see his lost love one more time. But their quest also shows Libby just how important it is to embrace her own chances for happiness—before it’s too late—in a beautifully uplifting novel about how a shared common experience among strangers can transform lives in the most marvelous ways.
