49 pages • 1 hour read
Jane HarperThe Lost Man
Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 2018A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Prologue-Chapter 7Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Prologue Summary
Content Warning: This section of the guide includes discussion of death by suicide, physical and psychological abuse, and sexual assault.
In a desolate stretch of the Australian outback, a circle of footprints surrounds a local landmark known as the stockman’s grave. The grave usually sits undisturbed, seen only by the 65 local residents and the 100,000 head of cattle they manage. The closest houses are hours away. A body in a blue shirt lies on the ground, contrasting with the red dust. Later, locals will try not to think about how the circle was made. It is the track of the dead man who circled the grave trying to stay in its shadow. He lasted just under 24 hours before dying of exposure and dehydration.
Chapter 1 Summary
Nathan Bright and his son, Xander, pull up to the stockman’s grave, where Bub, Nathan’s younger brother, is with the body. It is their third brother, Cam. Bub doesn’t know what happened. Cam was due to meet Bub at a place on the family’s property called Lehmann’s Hill to make repairs, but he never came. His body was discovered by sheer luck.
While they wait for the police and Steve, the local nurse, to arrive, they inspect the area around the body. Nathan finds it strange that Cam didn’t have a bottle of water. When Bub reports that Cam’s car was found nearly 10 kilometers away, Nathan is even more surprised. He couldn’t have walked that far in the heat. They go to look at it.
Chapter 2 Summary
Even with the GPS coordinates, finding Cam’s car isn’t easy. Bub drives down several wrong side roads until Xander sees light glinting off the metal car. The driver’s door is open, but Nathan finds nothing wrong with the car. Cam’s vehicle is fully stocked with fuel, food, and water, and it starts when Nathan turns the keys, which are still in the ignition. They can’t understand why Cam violated the first rule of breaking down in the outback, which is to stay with your car.
Chapter 3 Summary
Nathan, Bub, and Xander return to the stockman’s grave. Steve is there and introduces Nathan to a police officer they don’t recognize because Glenn, the regular officer, is away. The new officer, Ludlow, is fresh from Brisbane, the nearest city, which is hundreds of miles away. Nathan doubts he understands the outback.
After Ludlow takes pictures of the scene, Steve mentions that Nathan missed an appointment with him, but Nathan brushes him off. Ludlow questions Bub about his appointment with Cam, and Bub says he was late because he had two flat tires. Ludlow is skeptical, but Nathan and Steve confirm it is common.
Ludlow is surprised to find out that Nathan hadn’t seen Cam in nearly four months. Nathan explains that although their properties border each other, they live three hours apart. Bub tells Ludlow that Cam had been acting strange lately, surprising Nathan. As Steve and Ludlow load Cam’s body into the ambulance, the tarp pulls back, and Nathan sees how dehydration ravaged his brother’s body. Ludlow turns back to the grave and sees a small hole in the dirt that had been covered by Cam’s body.
Chapter 4 Summary
Cam’s fingernails were dirty and broken, indicating he might have dug the hole, possibly in confusion as the result of dehydration. Steve and Bub stay with the body while Nathan and Xander take Ludlow to Cam’s car. Something about the way Ludlow speaks to him seems strange to Nathan until he realizes that Ludlow is nonjudgmental toward him. He wonders how long it will be until Steve tells him Nathan’s story.
Nathan and Xander tell the officer that the area can flood even without rain, washing out the road and stranding them for weeks at a time. When Ludlow returns to the question of why Cam was at the stockman’s grave, Xander tells him that Cam once painted the grave and won an award for it.
When they get to Cam’s car, the officer notices nothing amiss. Cam had several good options for survival and had taken none of them. When Ludlow seems inclined to think that Cam died by suicide, Nathan pushes back, pointing out that Cam had plenty of guns on his property. There were easier and less painful ways to die.
Chapter 5 Summary
Nathan takes Xander to his family’s farm, Burley Downs. They pass a car on the road, and when the driver sees Nathan, he gives him the finger. The house is decorated for Christmas, and Harry, the farm’s manager, waits for them on the porch. Nathan’s mother, Liz, opens the front door, and he is shocked at how haggard she is. Harry and Liz agree that Cam was acting strange the past few weeks but don’t know why. After Liz and Xander go inside, Nathan tells Harry that the police think Cam possibly died by suicide.
Chapter 6 Summary
Inside, Duffy, Cam’s dog, approaches Nathan. She reminds him of his dog, Kelly, who died 18 months earlier after someone poisoned her. The police were skeptical, but Nathan was sure someone did it purposefully.
In the kitchen, he meets Simon and Katy, two English backpackers Cam hired. He hired Simon to help with the farm and Katy to teach the children. Simon thought Nathan lived further away because he hadn’t been to the farm. Nathan realizes that they must have heard about him in town. When Ilse, Cam’s wife, enters the kitchen, Nathan resists the impulse to fix his hair and avoids looking at her.
Chapter 7 Summary
Nathan remembers the first time he saw Ilse in that kitchen. They had dated before and were surprised to see each other. Nathan was more surprised when Cam entered the kitchen and kissed her. Later, Ilse told him she didn’t know Cam was his brother when they started dating.
Ilse doesn’t know how to talk to her daughters about Cam’s death. She asks Bub, who was eight when their father died, what had helped him, but Bub is characteristically taciturn. Nathan was 21 when their father died, so it had been different for him, but Bub had nightmares for years afterward.
Xander asks who saw Cam before he left the house. Katy says he told her he was going to Lehmann’s Hill and would stay overnight. She says he seemed agitated. He also stopped to talk to Ilse but only to tell her when he would be home. Liz, who was exercising Sophie’s horse, hadn’t seen him. Harry and Simon were out on the property but had split up, and Nathan realizes that their whereabouts are unaccounted for.
Bub tells a story about the stockman’s grave. Supposedly he was a cattle rustler who became separated from his gang and died. When the gang finally recovered the body, they buried him on the spot, which is believed to be haunted. Simon and Katy are spooked by the story, and Ilse leaves the room without saying a word.
Prologue-Chapter 7 Analysis
Harper opens The Lost Man with a bird’s eye view of the stockman’s grave, one of the pivotal settings in the novel. She uses a third-person point of view to describe the desolate landscape. Harper thus sets the tone for the novel and highlights the appearance of the grave, foreshadowing its importance in the story. She also describes the seasonal changes in the landscape, including “ground [that] was typically sandy and sparse for eleven months of the year and hidden under murky floodwater for the rest” (1). She introduces cattle operations so large the owners are “next-door neighbors, three hours apart,” and the nearest town, Balamara, “which catered loosely for a scattered population that could almost fit into one large room when gathered together” (1). By the end of the Prologue, setting of the novel is established as a small community in a brutal landscape. The setting will play an important role in the themes and plot of the story.
The book is written in the third-person limited point of view; the narrator has access Nathan’s thoughts but no one else’s. Chapter 1 introduces Nathan and his son, Xander, giving their relationship prominence and immediately introducing the theme of Learning to be a Father. Nathan’s struggle to balance his personal issues with his desire to be a good father will be a prominent part of the novel.
Cam’s death immediately overshadows this quiet father-son dynamic, as the pair arrive at the stockman’s grave, making the relevance of the Prologue clear. Nathan, Xander, and Bub meet over Cam’s dead body, and soon head off to find his car. Nathan and Bub’s toughness and self-sufficiency are clear, a product of their environment, and contrasted with, the narrator says, Xander’s “city softness exposed like a layer of new skin” (14). Xander, however, proves to be capable and confident, making thoughtful observations that echo aspects of his father’s personality.
The opening chapters also identify Nathan as the sleuth in this mystery. The authorities are late to arrive, and when they do, the officer is from the city and of little use. In the meantime, Nathan already inspected the grave and Cam’s car. He will continue to probe the mystery in a quiet way, while Xander fills the role of the detective’s sidekick.
These chapters also hint toward the complex personal relationships that will shape the story. Nathan’s dog was poisoned; a local in a passing car gives him the finger; Steve is worried about Nathan; and Nathan has a history with Ilse, Cam’s wife. Finally, the first of what will be many stories about the stockman’s grave is told, a motif that will run through the novel. By the end of Chapter 7, Harper establishes the setting, introduces the mystery, and hints at the deeper stories surrounding these characters.
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