The Lost Love Song starts with Diana and Arie’s love story. Before leaving for a tour, Diana begins to write a love song for her fiancé, to explain things in a way she couldn’t with mere words. Diana never returns from her tour and Arie has lost her forever. From there, we follow several strands: Arie, figuring out what his life is without Diana living in it; Evie, a poet who overhears two teenagers playing a love song on the street and is looking for her own love to share; and the flashes of people who transport Diana’s love song from where she finished composing it abroad on its journey around the world.
The people in this book feel real. The portrayal of loss, the feelings of the individuals after the tragedy… is very three dimensional. The actions each character took never felt contrived because of the situation, naturally driven toward their conclusion because of the individuals involved.
Not to say certain things might not seem made specifically for the plot to travel where it did. To put two people in the right place at the right time? Yet none of that pulled me out of the story. I was happy to follow the events along, and delve into the emotions of all of the characters.
From chapters focused on Arie to focused on Evie, I also very much enjoyed the Interludes, which were the chapters explaining the path Diana’s song took. Each chapter is a connected short story, an anthology of moments wrapped up in the larger story of Arie and Evie.
For readers who like a love story (or two), or those who are interested in reading about the lives of people from very different places in the world/their lives, I would recommend this. I was recommended this by my grandmother, who was sent this by someone else and I have half a mind to send my copy to another who I know will enjoy this as much as we did.
A. A. MacConnell 