The Missing World

Jonathan loves Hazel, and so he's worried sick when, after being knocked down in a crosswalk, she's plagued by horrible fits. The good news, though, is her simultaneous amnesia, because she had in fact moved out of their house in North London months before, appalled by a double transgression that she now cannot remember he's committed.

Meanwhile, as Jonathan commences his second chance and Hazel her rehabilitation, two other misfits knocking about London are trying to discover some direction in their lives, or at least the freedom to do as little as they please: an actress manque lately abandoned by her boyfriend; and a black American expatriate making do by repairing roofs, if he happens to feel like it. Eventually, though, these two, Charlotte and Freddie, cross paths at the bizarre household in which Hazel seems nearly a prisoner, and inevitably they become involved in an attempt to rescue her.

Replete with characters -- including a nosy neighbor, a mannequin-head designer, and Hazel's secretly lustful best friend -- and intricately plotted, The Missing World weaves together these separate quests for love and truth in a manner both thrilling and, ultimately, revealing about our imperfect human natures.