As you stand in the chaos of his going away party, a girl with blonde curls turns to you with wet eyes and tells you that everything is going to change, starting now. She's right. You're leaving her behind soon. Your boyfriend is leaving Dublin in three days and you are following him in six weeks. Neither of you have ever been to San Francisco before but it is where you are going to seek your fortune.

The moment Christina says this and throws her arms around you in the basement on Mountjoy Square will replay itself over and over in your head as the weeks count down to your departure. You will miss her more than you think.

From the very source, Not Lost, is the voice of the departed generation, not dead, but gone away as another generation of Irish young people fly beyond our shores in search of hope, jobs and a life worth living. In moving and emotional prose, Sarah Griffin delivers a powerful memoir of her first year abroad and all that means.