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Lost Lambs

2026’s bestselling standout debut ‘Extremely smart, impossibly funny’ CARO CLAIRE BURKE, author of YESTERYEAR

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Lost Lambs

By: Madeline Cash
Narrated by: Christine Lakin
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Summary

Brought to you by Penguin.

Think your family is dysfunctional? Meet the Flynns.

For the three Flynn daughters, it’s been disastrous since their parents opened up their marriage. Abigail, the eldest, is dating an ex-soldier several years her senior nicknamed ‘War Crimes Wes’. Louise, the middle child, maintains a secret correspondence with an online terrorist. And the brilliant youngest, Harper, is being sent to a wilderness reform camp due to her insistence that someone – or something – is monitoring the town’s citizens.

Casting a shadow across their lives is Paul Alabaster, a nefarious local billionaire. Rumours of corruption circulate, but no one dares dig too deep. No one except Harper, whose obsession with Alabaster’s machinations sends the family hurtling into a criminal conspiracy – one that may just, finally, bring them closer together.

The instant Sunday Times bestseller

‘A voice like no other’ Lena Dunham

‘If the Royal Tenenbaums were middle-class and likable, they’d be this madcap family.’ The New York Times

‘Manages to capture something we can all universally relate to: how normal it is to have a dysfunctional family’ Sunday Times


© Madeline Cash 2026 (P) Penguin Audio 2026

 Dark Humour Family Life Genre Fiction Literary Fiction Literature & Fiction Small Town & Rural Funny
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Critic reviews

I LOVED IT... Masterfully and totally realised
A true tour de force: unexpected, entertaining and genuinely funny
The book every insider is reading
A technicolour reinvention of the classic American family novel
Cash is a happy and energising new voice
A perky, fiendishly readable debut
A dazzling and singular new voice in literary fiction
What an absolute scream
Extremely smart, impossibly funny, and just plain fun to read
A glittering debut... It’s unforgettable
Energetic, hilarious, and spirited... Lost Lambs takes a thrillingly big swing and delivers a page-turner
Compulsive and original, you'll swallow this up
Totally mad and brilliantly funny
Laugh-out-loud funny and emotional, too
The year’s brightest literary star
This type of slapstick satire is what makes Cash’s novel so enjoyable... What is so appealing about this debut is that within her intelligent, funny writing, Cash manages to capture something we can all universally relate to: how normal it is to have a dysfunctional family.
From magical realism to magical nihilism, Madeline Cash is a voice like no other. Her novel of normal people breaking down under the most abnormal circumstances will shift the way you see the family and community into something operatic, strange and profound.
A wonderful new comic voice. I’ve read entire books that contain less wit and inventiveness than a single one of Cash’s sentences, which make “lifelike” and “absurd” seem like synonyms. Her ear for dialogue is inspired. Lost Lambs had me laughing throughout—even when I was horrified — and rooting for the Flynn sisters to save us all.
Lost Lambs goes off like a firework. Intrigue and mystery burst outward while the family at the centre of the story implodes. What I loved most were the big, seeking hearts of Madeline Cash's characters as they reach awkwardly toward love and connection – this novel is as sincere as it is funny (and it’s very funny).
Lost Lambs is wild. It struts. Madeline Cash calls us into a vividly imagined world, a Pynchon-paradise absurd enough to actually create a great, great American novel.
With a big surge of energy, Lost Lambs splits the nucleus of the American family – look into the flash and you'll see teen terrorists, smoking hot handywomen, and the most suicidal suburban dad this side of John Cheever. Madeline Cash likes to get dark, but fortunately the dark is where her writing glows.
The nightmare of the now has a radiant and vicious new bard, and her name is Madeline Cash.
All stars
Most relevant
I absolutely LOVED this book!! Unusual story and characters, it’s surprising and hilarious!! I think my favourite book of the year so far and I cannot recommend it highly enough!!

Brilliant!!

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The book began to tail off and become overpoweringly silly. After the clever build up, things became unrealistic to the characters abilities.

The first half of the book was intriguing, funny and interesting

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There is something totally joyful in this book. It's almost like you sense that Madeline Cash is really enjoying herself as she writes it and also making herself laugh, which I love. Great ending too.

I loved it.

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All the rave reviews said it was ‘quirky’, ‘funny’ but very early into the text I felt I had trodden in something very unpleasant. This was not a good novel but more an example of ‘The Emperor’s New Clothes’ which is happening more and more.

Needed better editing

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The reviews promised a quirky and witty tale. The few moments of genuine humour were not enough to salvage this from unlikable characters and the implausible storyline was just that: implausible, not engaging. A waste of a credit. I wanted to cleanse my brain when it had finished.
The narrator did a great job capturing the essence of the book. I hope they paid her a lot for this one.

Alienated characters alienated me

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