In February 2026 Doubleday are proud to be publishing a bold new voice in literary fiction, Madeline Cash, and her funny and original debut novel Lost Lambs. Rippling with humour, warmth and style, Lost Lambs turns family dysfunction into an art form. To learn more, we spoke to Madeline about her inspirations, favourite books and writing process.

Tell us about your book:

Lost Lambs follows each member of a hapless family – parents Bud and Catherine Flynn, and daughters Abigail, Louise and Harper Flynn – through the disintegration of their nuclear unit and their respective discoveries of a local cabal of billionaires. I wanted to explore the decline of the American family and what happens behind closed doors. I’d also become fixated on the ‘systems novel’, fragmented narratives and networks that explore our political systems, ideologies and contemporary life through character. Aspirationally, it’s The Corrections meets Eyes Wide Shut. A family saga and crime caper.

How did you find the writing process for Lost Lambs, was the book fun to write? Were there any challenging moments?

It was very fun to write! Whenever it began to feel like a slog I’d think, if it’s not fun to write, it won’t be fun to read and would pivot directions. I’d never written a narrative longer than ten pages before Lost Lambs so everything about the process was new and challenging and exciting. Revisions were hard, but I had the luxury of completing them on residency in an Italian castle which made even the most tedious rewrites utterly enjoyable. The biggest challenge was finding the time and financial freedom to just sit and write. See next question.

What is the best piece of writing advice you have ever received?

The best piece of advice comes from Edward Albee by way of my college professor Tim Kreider which was about getting some dumb job to pay the bills and saving your creative energies for your writing (Albee famously worked for Western Union). Wages have flatlined and the cost of living has exponentiated since Albee was young, but my Western Union was writing copy for the American fast food conglomerate Jack in the Box so by day I wrote about 100% beef patties and by night I wrote the book. I quit my job at Jack in the Box the day I got my book deal. I was also told to marry rich. I didn’t do this but would be curious to try it someday.

What inspired Lost Lambs?

So many things: The Virgin Suicides, Bryan Johnson, A Fish Called Wanda, MKUltra, Preparations for the Next Life, Lana Del Rey, my friend Chloe’s adult baptism, Being There, summers in the South Bay, road trips, my Lutheran elementary school, coffee shops, raw milk, stomach aches. Everything made a debut, really.

Which female authors would you say have inspired your writing the most?

Joy Williams, particularly The Quick and the Dead, and Lydia Millet’s A Children’s Bible were most influential while writing Lost Lambs. I also love and am inspired by Helen DeWitt, Rebecca Curtis, Lorrie Moore, Vigdis Hjorth and Leslie Jamison, who I had the honour of meeting and reading with recently.

Why did you want to become a writer?

My mother will gladly tell you that I have always been a writer. It was all I ever wanted to be save for ‘a tree’, which I wrote in the ‘what I want to be when I grow up’ section of a kindergarten assessment. ‘Tree’ is not a common career path so writer it was. I didn’t want to be a writer because it was cool or chic or fiscally responsible, I just love writers and writing, and you should do what you love unless you love homicide or torturing animals or something. In all seriousness, being a writer is my absolute dream and I feel incredibly blessed to be here.

The Flynns are not alright.

It’s been disastrous since Bud and Catherine opened up their marriage, and none of the Flynns can remember the last time a meal was cooked, a load of laundry done, or a social code abided by. Their daughters spiral in their own chaotic orbits: Abigail, the eldest, is dating a man in his twenties nicknamed War Crime Wes; Louise, the middle child, maintains a secret correspondence with an online terrorist; the brilliant youngest, Harper, is being sent to wilderness reform camp due to her insistence that someone – or something – is monitoring the town’s citizens.

Casting a shadow across their lives, and their small coastal town, is Paul Alabaster, a nefarious local billionaire. Rumours of corruption circulate, but no one dares dig too deep. No one except Harper, whose obsession with Alabaster’s machinations sends the family hurtling into a criminal conspiracy – one that may just, finally, bring them closer together. This is an original, funny and compassionate portrait of the perverse pleasures and perils of our most intimate reality: our family.

Lost Lambs publishes 5th February 2026.