We are transported to vistas of rugged beauty-densely wooded forests, open expanses of tundra, soaring volcanoes, and the glassy seas that border Japan and Alaska-and into a region as complex as it is alluring, where social and ethnic tensions have long simmered, and where outsiders are often the first to be accused. Taking us through a year in Kamchatka, Disappearing Earth enters with astonishing emotional acuity the worlds of a cast of richly drawn characters, all connected by the crime: a witness, a neighbor, a detective, a mother. Echoes of the disappearance reverberate across a tightly woven community, with the fear and loss felt most deeply among its women. In the ensuing weeks, then months, the police investigation turns up nothing. One August afternoon, on the shoreline of the Kamchatka peninsula at the northeastern edge of Russia, two girls-sisters, eight and eleven-go missing. Spellbinding, moving-evoking a fascinating region on the other side of the world-this suspenseful and haunting story announces the debut of a profoundly gifted writer.
One of The New York Times 10 Best Books of the Yearįinalist for the National Book Critics Circle John Leonard Prizeįinalist for the Center for Fiction First Novel Prizeįinalist for the New York Public Library's Young Lions Fiction Award Lori Feathers, Interabang Books, Dallas, TX The mystery of the girls’ fates will keep you on the edge of your seat, but even more impressive is the way Phillips portrays the lives of her female characters-women who struggle to obtain a better life for themselves and their children, lives unencumbered by the racism, economic instability, and isolation inherent in living in a disregarded and harsh corner of Russia’s vast landscape.” “A thrilling and original debut novel that explores the lives of several women living in Russia’s remote Kamchatka Peninsula whose lives are unknowingly connected by the unsolved disappearances of three girls. Casey Coonerty, Bookshop Santa Cruz, Santa Cruz, CA Summer 2020 Reading Group Indie Next List The stories of the women there-their family dynamics, their hopes and fears, the economic and cultural divide of various communities-tell a moving story about this place in a moment in time, but ultimately about the universal struggle of women living with the expectations placed on them. She beautifully transports us to a region of the world that I had never heard of and now can’t stop thinking about.
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