The Disappeared

A fiercely beautiful love story for the ages, The Disappeared traces one woman's three-decades-long journey from the peaceful streets of Montreal to the war-torn villages of Cambodia, as a brief affair turns into a grand passion of loss and remembrance, set against one of the most brutal genocides of our time. When sixteen-year-old Anne Greves first meets Serey, a Cambodian student forced to leave his country during the rise of the Khmer Rouge, she never considers the consequences of their complicated romance. Swept up in the infatuation of young love, Anne ignores her father's wishes and embraces her relationship with Serey in Montreal's smoky jazz clubs and in his cramped yellow bedroom. But when the borders of Cambodia are reopened, Serey must risk his life to return home in search of his family. A decade later, Anne will travel halfway around the world to find him, and to save their love from the same tragic forces that first brought them together. In aching, tender prose, Kim Echlin challenges our notions of how to both claim the past of move on after insufferable loss. Part elegy, part love letter, part call to arms, The Disappeared is a soaring tribute to those who have disappeared in the violent conflicts throughout history.

Author: Kim Echlin
Publisher: Grove Press, Black Cat
Published: 12/29/2009
Pages: 224
Binding Type: Paperback
Weight: 0.65lbs
Size: 8.20h x 5.50w x 0.70d
ISBN: 9780802170668
Award: Discover Great New Writers - Winner

Review Citation(s):
Library Journal Prepub Alert 09/15/2009 pg. 41
Publishers Weekly 11/02/2009 pg. 36
Library Journal 11/15/2009 pg. 57
Booklist 12/15/2009 pg. 18
New York Times Book Review 01/17/2010 pg. 18
New York Review of Books 01/10/2010 pg. 15
BookPage 01/01/2010

About the Author
Kim Echlin is the author of Dagmar's Daughter and Elephant Winter, which won the Torgi Talking Book of the Year Award and was short-listed for the Chapters/Books in Canada First Novel Award. She lives in Toronto.