Disappearing Earth

A novel

De: Julia Phillips

Narrado por: Ilyana Kadushin

One of The New York Times 10 Best Books of the Year

National Book Award Finalist
Finalist for the National Book Critics Circle John Leonard Prize
Finalist for the Center for Fiction First Novel Prize
Finalist for the New York Public Library's Young Lions Fiction Award

National Best Seller

"Splendidly imagined . . . Thrilling" --Simon Winchester
"A genuine masterpiece" --Gary Shteyngart

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 August afternoon, on the shoreline of the Kamchatka peninsula at the northeastern edge of Russia, two girls--sisters, eight and eleven--go missing. In the ensuing weeks, then months, the police investigation turns up nothing. Echoes of the disappearance reverberate across a tightly woven community, with the fear and loss felt most deeply among its women.

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. 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.

In a story as propulsive as it is emotionally engaging, and through a young writer's virtuosic feat of empathy and imagination, this powerful novel brings us to a new understanding of the intricate bonds of family and community, in a Russia unlike any we have seen before.

Why did I need to meet all of these characters?

I'm quoting a previous reviewer who couldn't have said it better.
"There are just way too many voices in this story. Each vignette is very well written. But it felt relentless, one after the other, having to meet new characters and get inside their heads, only to abandon most of them completely."
I liked some of the characters we meet early in the story, but by the end I wasn't sure why they were introduced at all. If there was a connection to them in the end, I missed it.

book? interesting. Audible? missed

this book review has more to do with audible. where the heck are the book notes at the end?
I realize once again after a book club meeting that audible does not provide the acknowledgement, or book notes, let alone discussion questions (in this book there may not have been any discussion questions)

Unforgettable

Marvelous language; great story; mystery with unexpected twists; richly drawn characters; a spiritual journey; exciting and unexpected ending. Among the best books you will ever read by any author. And, the audio version narration is tops!

Very good….not great!

Enjoyed the time jump narrative and the narrator was talented…didn’t care for the ending after such a buildup

The anti-thriller that breaks your heart

There is so much to love about this novel. The structure, the prose, the heart. But it is the combination of everything that makes Disappearing Earth a special book. In the hands of a lesser writer, the structure of DE might feel wandering or disconnected, but not with Phillips. Phillips guides us around the rock of the disappearance of two girls as we discover just how far the waves of such an act can reach. Its a beautiful book, beautifully narrated. Cannot recommend enough.

summer read

More characters than I could audibly track, but a pleasant story. Our book group choice per NY Times review.

Spell binding

A wonderfully narrated story filled with suspense and great life lessons about what to believe in. Only struggle was the Russian names but that was probably good for me

Long and wordy. Hard to stay with it.

Not my favorite. Good characterizations but story not strong enough. I can't recommend this book.

Takes some concentration but worth it

I enjoyed the short-story type chapters and the way the characters had their own story but also tracked through other chapters. Less than 6-degrees of separation. The story was set in an area I know nothing about and appreciated learning a bit about it.

Gripping mystery set in remote Russia

This eminently readable first novel weaves together the remote terrain, weather and isolation of the Kamchatka peninsula and a mystery of two missing little sisters who disappeared one summer afternoon. A haunting sense of foreboding is ever-present in these interwoven stories of the townspeople and others affected by the girls’ disappearance. Hard to put this down.