Disappearing Earth by Julia Phillips

Fri, 10/04/2019 - 2:37pm -- JGranatino

One August afternoon, on the shoreline of the remote Kamchatka peninsula at the northeastern tip of Russia, two young sisters go missing. Their disappearance sends shockwaves through the tight-knit community and leaves everyone, even the police, wondering what happened to them. 

Told over the course of a year following the disappearance, one month per chapter, Phillips' powerful debut novel connects the lives of a cast of diverse female characters changed by the sisters' abduction including a witness, a neighbor, a detective, and a mother. Woven into the narrative are racial tensions, local politics, and stunning descriptions of a vast, remote landscape. 

While Phillips' novel begins with the disappearance of two young girls, it blooms beyond that and speaks to the complex yet enduring bonds of community, offering vivid portraits of people reaching out to one another trying to hold onto those bonds.

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