MELISSA CONNELLY: WHAT WAS LOST
When a young girl feels complicit in her own abuse, how does that thwart the adult woman? This episode of Big Blend Radio’s 2nd Wednesday “Books & Authors” Show with Books Forward features debut author Melissa Connelly discusses her new novel, “What Was Lost.”
A woman returns to her hometown to uncover the truth and confront the perpetrator of the childhood sexual abuse she endured 30 years earlier in Melissa Connelly’s gripping debut novel, “What Was Lost” (October 2024 She Writes Press).
Melissa Connelly’s debut novel comes after a long career in education. A finalist for the 2019 Montana Prize and at 60, she’s ready to share her first novel; a story about a 40-year-old woman who returns to her old hometown in Vermont and faces the past she was so desperate to forget.
In a world before Roe v. Wade, young Marti is fourteen and pregnant by her 27-year-old art teacher. In desperation, she looks for ways to abort the baby. With the help of her friend, Peter, she hitchhikes across state borders to seek the procedure out. Soon after the abortion, she runs away. Thirty years later, Mari is confronted with disturbing memories from her past and returns for the first time to her small Vermont hometown. She drags along her unwitting and unwilling teenage daughter, heightening the tension between them. Encountering her old friend Peter, she learns how the lies she told impacted his life. Together they concoct a plan to find her abuser. Marti is seeking forgiveness for lies told, and revenge for secrets held.
Exploring the vast social change from 1970 to 2000, What Was Lost unfolds in times before language such as #MeToo helped give voice to these all-too-common occurrences. It is a raw, powerful tale of one woman confronting the ghosts of her past.
Melissa Connelly dropped out of high school at age fifteen. Despite this, she went on to receive a BSN in nursing, an MA in special education, and an MFA in creative writing. She’s had a long career working with children in various roles in schools, hospitals, psychiatric clinics, and daycares. Her work has been published in American Heritage Magazine, Ruminate Magazine and the anthology It’s All About Shoes, and she was a finalist for the 2019 Montana Prize. Connelly has a home in the mountains of Western North Carolina but lives most of the year in Brooklyn, New York. Find out more: https://melissaconnelly.com/
