The Secret of Lost Things is a quietly immersive literary mystery set in contemporary New York, centred on the intimate world of rare books, forgotten manuscripts, and lives lived between the shelves.
 
The novel follows Rosemary Savage, a young Australian woman adrift in New York City, who finds refuge working in a small second-hand bookshop. Her days are spent cataloguing obscure volumes and handling the detritus of other people’s lives—annotated books, marginalia, forgotten letters—each object hinting at untold stories. When Rosemary becomes drawn into the mystery surrounding a missing manuscript and its reclusive author, the novel deepens into a meditation on loss, memory, identity, and the quiet power of books to preserve human experience.
 
Sheridan Hay’s prose is elegant and restrained, blending literary fiction with elements of mystery and bibliophilia. The book is especially admired by readers and collectors who value novels about books, making it a natural crossover title for literary fiction enthusiasts and rare-book lovers alike.