"A novel about four generations of a British family--their secrets, their loves and losses, dreams and heartbreaks--captured in a series of individual moments that span the years from World War I, to World War II, to the 1960s, and up to the present"--.

"The Dictionary of Lost Words is a work of fiction. All incidents and dialogue, and all characters with the exception of some well-known historical figures, are products of the author's imagination and are not to be construed as real. Before the lost word, there was another. It arrived at the Scriptorium in a second-hand envelope, the old address crossed out and Dr Murray, Sunnyside, Oxford, written in its place. It was Da's job to open the post and...