Everything Lost Returns - by Sarah Domet (Hardcover)

About the Book

"Set in 1920 and 1986, when Halley's Comet was last visible from earth, Everything Lost Returns is a heartfelt, dual timeline historical novel following a soap opera star and a factory worker It's 1910, and as Halley's Comet approaches, the world is holding its breath. Opal, on the run from her abusive husband, has become an Earthshine girl - working in a factory owned by the illustrious Tuttle family to make the extremely popular Earthshine soap. Despite her newfound financial independence, Opal can't help but notice that many of the Earthshine girls are falling sick, and they all suffer the same symptoms - is it possible that the soap, and the Tuttle family, are responsible? Meanwhile, in 1986, Halley's Comet once again makes its way toward earth. Struggling soap opera actress Nona Dixon owes everything to Bertie Tuttle, who put Nona's face on Earthshine soap when she was a child and made her a star. But when Nona starts doing some digging on her benefactor, she begins to uncover a dark history surrounding Bertie, Opal, and the soap that binds all three women together. Gorgeously written and intricately constructed, Everything Lost Returns is a story of friendship and betrayal, guilt and redemption, and the power we have, in our own small way, to change the course of history"-- Provided by publisher.

Book Synopsis

The poignant, utterly original story of two women separated across time but united by the arrival of Halley's comet, as blazing and as daring as their stories

1986. The Earthshine Soap Company has given Nona Dixon everything, from making her the brand's first Earthshine Girl to launching her acting career. It also threatens to be the very thing that causes her to unravel when a group of Jane Does file a class action lawsuit accusing the company of putting harmful ingredients into their products. When Nona begins investigating Bertie Tuttle, the company's third-generation owner, she uncovers a complicated history involving her benefactor and a mysterious woman named Opal Doucet.

1910. Seventy-six years earlier, Opal Doucet, a rural doctor's wife, is pregnant, on the run, and desperate to get to Paris and to the charismatic spiritualist who supposedly communed with her first love. To save money, Opal goes to work in the Earthshine Soap factory as an Earthshine Girl where she uses her knowledge of medicine, and the spiritualist's teachings, to prescribe cures to the women who've come down with mystery ailments. As she and Bertie Tuttle secretly partner in a labor strike intended to improve the working conditions at the factory, Opal must decide the cost of her own freedom.

Gorgeously written and intricately constructed, Everything Lost Returns is a story of desire and friendship, guilt and redemption, and the power we have, in our own small way, to change the course of history.

Review Quotes

"Sarah Domet has written a tenderhearted and brilliantly crafted story, full of tension and surprises, uniting women across time in their struggles, losses, and victories. This novel is a paean to the courage it takes to rise up against injustice, and the magic of friendships formed in the most difficult circumstances. Beautiful, engrossing, and revelatory--Everything Lost Returns is its own celestial event."
--Nina de Gramont, New York Times bestselling author of The Christie Affair

"Supersmart, super-fun, and flat-out supernatural, Sarah Domet's stellar second novel rings with the rhymes and resonances that pattern the past and the present. Soapy in the very best possible way, Everything Lost Returns is a page-turning work of medical spiritualism, Midwestern melancholy, and the too often unsung (melo)drama of middle-age, showing how time binds everyone, but women especially, and revealing what can happen when these women--as individuals and as a collective--dare to unleash their power."
--Kathleen Rooney, national bestselling author of From Dust to Stardust

"A thrilling, decades-leaping page-turner that is also a beautiful meditation on trust and faith and deception--and the impossible contradictions of the roles the world offers women. Everything Lost Returns is a prism of a story whose many facets--the secret-rich history of Earthshine Soap, the meanings of a comet, the fears and desires of two women born a lifetime apart--come together to dazzle."
--Clare Beams, author of The Garden

"A compelling, propulsive read, Everything Lost Returns asks not just what women owe each other, but what they owe themselves. It's a tale that resonates. At its heart are questions of ownership, self-determination, what real progress looks like, and if and when such progress may be possible. With prose both beautiful and incisive, Domet gives us a book at home on the shelf between both The Lost Apothecary and Radium Girls. This is a novel that demands to be both ruminated over and devoured. I loved it."
--Erika Swyler, national bestselling author of The Book of Speculation

"A dazzling, magical novel that entrances with every page. Domet weaves a beautiful story that lingers long after its conclusion."
--Jason Mott, New York Times bestselling author of Hell of a Book

About the Author

Sarah Domet is the author of the novels The Guineveres and Everything Lost Returns, and the nonfiction book 90 Days to Your Novel. Her short fiction and nonfiction have been published and anthologized in numerous places. Domet holds a Ph.D. in literature and creative writing from The University of Cincinnati. She is a professor and the coordinator of the MFA program in creative writing at the University of North Carolina Wilmington.