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. 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.

Phillips wrote the book to chronicle her downward spiral into cocaine use and craziness to get even with people who, she. Echoes of the disappearance reverberate across a tightly woven community, with the fear and loss felt most deeply among its women. The daughter of New York intellectuals, a Mount Holyoke graduate, Ms. 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. Thrilling -Simon WinchesterĪ 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. Debut novel, DISAPPEARING EARTH, available now from aaknopf. 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 National Best Seller Julia Phillips she/her/hers Author From Brooklyn to Kamchatka and back again.

Julia phillips author