This book stems from a series of Holy Week addresses on the "lost sons" of Genesis and Exodus, rewritten, enlarged and expanded to feature several more sons who were lost. I found it skilfully written and deeply insightful. The author approaches familiar stories in illuminating and often unusual ways, for example viewing the brother who stayed at home in the Prodigal Son parable as the one who was truly lost. Murdered; cursed; abandoned; bound; supplanted; betrayed; exiled. Michael Sadgrove attempts to find the "golden thread" that weaves through the narrative and themes of these stories, connecting them to each other and to Christ. Whilst the explicit idea of the golden thread disappears after the first chapter, I believe he succeeds both in his attempt to find this thread and to link each story to ourselves, individually all also lost sons. Michael Sadgrove has written a book that is not only an interesting and enlightening discussion on the lost sons of Genesis and Exodus and of how knowledge of these stories can aid our understanding of Christ but also a book that applies these issues to us, provoking a personal as well as academic exploration. Well worth a read.