Don’t Mistake Madeline Cash’s ‘Lost Lambs’ for an “Internet Novel”—It’s as Human as They Come

A couple’s open marriage collapses as their three daughters are sucked into a billionaire-led criminal conspiracy in Madeline Cash’s buzzy, hilarious, and richly rendered new novel Lost Lambs , out this week from Farrar, Straus and Giroux. Threading together no small number of well-turned puns (to wit: a mobile bris service called “Take an Inch, Give a Mohel”), Cash captures a level of family dysfunction that is also, somehow, totally appealing. This week, Vogue spoke to Cash about “leaning into sentimentality” with Lost Lambs ; taking inspiration from Raymond Chandler and insane tech bros; her feelings about being lumped in with the “downtown lit” scene; and celebrating her book launch with her mom. Vogue : How did the Flynn family first enter your mind? Madeline Cash: Well, I wanted to write something that was completely fictional and really bears no resemblance to my own life. I don’t have any siblings and I have a single parent from a big city, so it was sort of an initial challenge to fully create characters. The first character was honestly the villain, Paul Alabaster. I was really obsessed with this guy, Bryan Johnson , who uses his son’s blood to fight aging, so that was sort of where Paul came from. The other characters were just kind of composites and studies; I made character maps for them, but I don’t know, I kind of just made them up. [ Laughs. ] What did your writing process look like? I wish that it was more organic or that I had a typewriter from my grandfather, but it was on the computer in my apartment. I make charts and diagrams, physically and digitally. I mapped out the timeline really thoroughly, so there was a high level of organization with it, but I was working at the time, so nights and weekends I’d be at my desk or at a coffee shop, on the computer. I love all the puns in this novel; did you have to kill any darlings in the editing process? I was a copywriter, so wordplay is really something that I love. My editors did have me really tone down the humor and lean into sentimentality more, which I think felt a bit uncomfortable, but I’m glad that they did. They actually did cut a significant [part] of a character, which I also, at first, was reluctant to do. But I do think they’re right and are good at their jobs, and it ended up being for the best. Do you have other favorite novels that are sort of arranged around a family setup? Definitely The Corrections by Jonathan Franzen-that’s a great family novel and I think that was my most recent sort of inspiration. I also really love Underworld by Don DeLillo. A lot of mysteries were also a big influence. I like The Big Sleep by Raymond Chandler, and I read quite a bit of it to kind of understand that plotting, because it’s kind of a mix of a...

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