Ways to Disappear

By: Idra Novey

Narrated by: Susan Hanfield

For fans of Robin Sloan's Mr. Penumbra's 24-Hour Bookstore and Maria Semple's Where'd You Go, Bernadette, an inventive, brilliant debut novel about the disappearance of a famous Brazilian novelist and the young translator who turns her life upside down to follow her author's trail.

Beatriz Yagoda was once one of Brazil's most celebrated authors. At the age of sixty, she is mostly forgotten-until one summer afternoon when she enters a park in Rio de Janeiro, climbs into an almond tree, and disappears.

When her devoted translator Emma hears the news in wintry Pittsburgh, she flies to the sticky heat of Rio. There she joins the author's son and daughter to solve the mystery of Yagoda's disappearance and satisfy the demands of the colorful characters left in her wake, including a loan shark with a debt to collect and the washed-up editor who launched Yagoda's career. What they discover is how much of her they never knew.

Exquisitely imagined and as profound as it is suspenseful, Ways to Disappear is at once a thrilling story of intrigue and a radiant novel of self-reckoning.

"An elegant page-turner....Charges forward with the momentum of a bullet."-New York Times Book Review

Critic reviews

"Idra Novey, an acclaimed poet and translator of Spanish and Portugese literature, has written a debut novel that's a fast-paced, beguilingly playful, noirish literary mystery with a translator at its center. Ways to Disappear explores the meaning behind a writer's words--the way they can both hide and reveal deep truths....Novey's novel delivers on its promises in so many ways. Yes, there's carnage, but there's also exuberant love, revelations of long-buried, unhappy secrets, ruminations about what makes a satisfying life, a publisher's regrets about moral compromises in both his work and his use of his family wealth and connections, and an alternately heartfelt and wry portrait of the satisfactions and anxieties of the generally underappreciated art of translation....Ways to Disappear is concerned not just with truth and the risks of its misplacement and misinterpretation, but with the importance of close reading. It's a delightful, inventive paean to writing that generates 'real emotion' and 'genuine unease.' At one point Beatriz's publisher likens literature to steaks on a grill, testing both 'for density' as well as 'for something tender in the middle yet still heavy enough to blacken the air.' This book is seared to perfection."
—Heller McAlpin, NPR

"[An] elegant page-turner....Novey writes with cool precision and breakneck pacing....This lush and tightly woven novel manages to be a meditation on all forms of translation while still charging forward with the momentum of a bullet."—Catherine Lacey, New York Times Book Review

"[A] seductive mystery....Novey, a poet and translator, brings to her first novel a zesty comic touch and refreshing insights into the delicate processes of writing and translation."—Jane Ciabattari, BBC

"Bewitching....A tale of playful suspense that ingeniously transmutes into a profound meditation on language and love."—Elliott Holt, O, The Oprah Magazine

"Exhilarating....Sly, lovely writing.... In Raquel, Beatriz's hard-bitten daughter, [Novey] has created a heart-rending portrait of the price someone always ends up paying for genius. A writer to watch."
—Charles Finch, USA Today

"Novey's elegant, comic debut....a novel whose power of enchantment rival those of its fictional author."—Anita Felicelli, San Francisco Chronicle

"[Novey] sustains suspense throughout with beautifully restrained prose."—Carmela Ciuraru, New York Times

"Reminiscent of a Coen brothers movie....[a] spare, witty riddle of a novel."—Sam Sacks, Wall Street Journal

unique writing style and mystery

wow. What a book! Just finished listening to ways to disappear. chapters are broken down into such small segments that there are about 70 chapters lol. that plus some other writing styles I've never seen before really made it for an interesting listen. informative, funny, and captivating! I was sitting in my driveway listening do it for 15 minutes after I got home! Highly recommend.

Interesting, if somewhat rushed, story

This book was interesting enough...the story was good, with lots of twists and turns...but I found it rushed and somewhat harried because of that. I'm usually a proponent of good editing, but in this case I could have used a bit more to this story...it seemed like we got from beginning to end without enough explanation of what came in between.

Beautifully written and narrated and overall thoughtful story...just wanted more.