Not lost: one young Irishwoman's emigrant story

At once brazen and terrified, Sarah Maria Griffin's beautifully written memoir, Not Lost: A Story About Leaving Home, opens a doorway into the interior life of the Celtic Tiger Cubs who have left Ireland to escape the recession and in search of prosperity. Thrown into life 5,000 miles away from home, Sarah's tale echoes that of many of her generation forced to forge new lives and build new homes on distant shores. She describes in open, honest, detail her experience of her first year in San Francisco, a year of struggle and strife, of newness and oddness of adventure and excitement, of loneliness and despair, but also of incredible happiness and joy. Not Lost is a book about growing up, about friendship, about love, about life and living it well. It is by turns heartbreaking, funny, tender and gutsy, it is assured but never cocky and marks Sarah Maria Griffin as one of the major voices of her generation.