Lost world Arthur Gordon Pym of Nantucket" (1838) has certain lost world elements towards the end of the tale. James Hilton's "Lost Horizon" (1933) enjoyed popular success in using the genre as a takeoff for popular philosophy and social comment. It introduced the name Shangri-La, a meme for the idealization of the lost world as a paradise. Similar books where the inhabitants of the lost world are seen as superior to the outsiders, are Joseph O'Neill's "Land under England" (1935) and Douglas Valder Duff's "Jack Harding’s Quest" (1939). Hergé also explores the theme in his comics "The Seven Crystal Balls" and "Prisoners
What Was Lost Was Lost" was the winner in the first novel category of the Costa Book Awards. O'Flynn received a £5,000 prize. It was short-listed for the overall Costa Book of the Year Award. The Costa Book Awards' judging panel, chaired by Joanna Trollope, praised the novel for "blending humour and pathos in a cleverly constructed and absorbing mystery." They described the novel as inventive, compelling, and poignant. "What Was Lost" was long-listed for the 2007 Man Booker Prize and the Orange Prize for Fiction. It was short-listed for the Guardian First Book Award. It won the Jelf Group First Novel Award