Book Club Guide

The Boy Lost in the Maze

by Joseph Coelho · 2022 · Literary Fiction

Key themes

An absent father, sought through myth — Theseus and the Minotaur as mirror
Verse as the form for a story about searching
Contemporary family experience woven with classical mythology

About this book

A boy searching for his absent father is guided through a verse narrative that weaves in the Greek myth of Theseus and the Minotaur — both stories about boys trying to find their way through labyrinths, literal and emotional. Coelho's Carnegie Medal-winning verse novel combines contemporary family experience with classical mythology.

Published in 2021, The Boy Lost in the Maze won the Carnegie Medal in 2024. Coelho is a poet and was the UK's Waterstones Children's Laureate (2022-2024), and has written extensively about using poetry to address difficult subjects for young readers.

Discussion questions

The novel interweaves a contemporary story about a boy searching for his father with the Greek myth of Theseus navigating the labyrinth to face the Minotaur. How does Coelho develop this parallel — what does the ancient story illuminate about the contemporary one?
The novel is written in verse. How does this form serve the subject — searching, absence, the maze as both literal myth and emotional metaphor?
Labyrinths and mazes are central images. What do they represent across the dual narratives — and how does the verse form's structure (line breaks, white space) relate to the maze imagery?
The Minotaur in Greek myth is often presented as simply monstrous. Does Coelho's treatment complicate this — and does the contemporary story's 'monster' (whatever stands in for it) receive similar complexity?
The Boy Lost in the Maze won the Carnegie Medal. What does verse allow Coelho to do with this material — themes of absence and searching — that prose might handle differently?