Disappearing Earth

Authors should not put character lists at the beginning of books--it makes readers nervous. So many characters I need a map to keep track of them? Yes, in the case of Disappearing Earth by Julia Phillips, but the effort is well worth it. Two young sisters vanish from the town center on a beautiful summer day in a small city on the Kamchatka peninsula. Phillips then follows the next 12 months, each with a different character loosely connected to the two girls until she circles back a year later. Beautifully written with deceptively simple sentences and sharp descriptions of the harsh landscape, Kamchatka itself becomes a main piece of the story. Phillips has written an extraordinary novel about loneliness, race, women and so much show more more--highly recommended. show less

Disappearing Earth’s thirteen chapters all feature a different female character and can stand as separate stories. In the opening chapter, two young sisters are abducted and driven off by a man who pretends to be injured to lure them into his car. The girls’ disappearance reverberates throughout the rest of the book. That is because all of the characters share one thing in common, they all live in Kamchatka, a fairly inaccessible peninsula in the Russian Far East. All have an interest in the kidnapping and theories about what may have happened to the girls. But they also have their own stories to tell as they deal with the sexism inherent in Kamchatka’s patriarchal society.

It is no exaggeration to say that Kamchatka itself plays a show more major role in Julia Phillips’ novel. With no major roads connecting it to the rest of Russia, its volcano studded landscape is separated from Moscow by nine time zones. While the majority of the population is Russian, its minorities include Ukrainians, Koryaks and Evens. These last two on the list are collectively known as Kamchadals, and they are the region’s original natives. This blending of unique cultures supplies the background to all of this book’s stories.

The abduction haunts each chapter, showing how such an event affects individuals and an entire community. But each chapter’s female character dominates center stage when in the spotlight. I can think of no higher praise than to say that each of these chapters could be spun into an interesting novel of its own. show less

Wow. Absolutely incredible. I want to read it again, but more slowly, so I can taste each sentence. It's much more than a story about two girls' disappearance. It's the story of how grief reverberates throughout the tangled weave we call community. And in this community are racial, social, and class undertones that rarely surface when Americans discuss Russia. AND THE SUSPENSE. Please, Julia Phillips, write one hundred more books!

What to say about this haunting book? To start, it doesn't fall neatly into any category. There is a disappearance at its core, but for the greater part of the book we see that mystery only obliquely through the stories of individuals, primarily women, whose lives have a tangential connection to the riddle of two girls who went missing.

The quality of the writing is so high that it merits consideration as literary fiction, as evidenced by its status as a National Book Award finalist. The book's structure is distinctive; each chapter reflects a consecutive month of the year following the girls' disappearance, seen through the lives of different characters whose interconnections emerge very gradually.

It could be considered travel show more writing, given the descriptions of the geography and people of the Kamchatka Peninsula. In far eastern Russia, much closer to Alaska, Japan and Korea than to Moscow or St. Petersburg and accessible only by plane or boat, Kamchatka's isolation is an ongoing influence on events in the novel. Socio-political history is another key element, as Phillips describes Kamchatka's residents' responses to the passing of the Soviet era, which offered security if little else, and the challenges of life under Putin.

And there is a definite feminist flavor to Phillips' compassionate treatment of the women whose stories are the heart of the book. Their lives are for the most part disappointing as they struggle to establish careers, relationships, and independence from cultural, political, and geographic constraints. The sadness of their endeavors to remain strong, to continue existing in a world of adversity and misfortune, pervades the narrative.

Although it took three or four chapters to become clear, I found the ways in which the characters are interconnected to be the richest aspect of the book, the most brilliant display of Phillips' gifts as a writer. Nothing heavy-handed, sometimes only a faint reference that comes across almost like a scent on a gentle breeze. It's there, but what is it exactly? How does it fit with the other pieces?

Brilliantly, as it turns out. show less

Kamtschatka ist als weitgehend unberührtes Naturparadies bekannt, in dem Besuchende Vulkane, Geysire, Braunbären und mehr entdecken können. Doch wie die Menschen in diesem dünn besiedelten Teil Russlands (die Halbinsel ist etwas größer als Deutschland mit ca. 310.000 dort Lebenden verschiedener Ethnien) leben, dürfte weitestgehend unbekannt sein.
Julia Phillips erzählt in monatlichen Abständen in 13 Geschichten von Frauen und Mädchen, die in irgendeiner Form mit dem Verschwinden zweier kleiner Mädchen in Berührung gekommen sind; sei es durch Pressemitteilungen, Verwandtenberichte oder ähnlichem. Auch wenn der Vermisstenfall scheinbar im Vordergrund steht (das erste Kapitel handelt davon), ist er letztlich ’nur‘ die show more Verbindung zwischen den Frauen über die hier berichtet wird, die aus den verschiedensten Gegenden der Halbinsel kommen und so unterschiedlich sind wie ihre Herkunft. Männer, zumindest wenn sie leben, tauchen in diesen Geschichten fast nur als unangenehme Zeitgenossen auf: Schwätzer, unzuverlässig, autoritär, sexistisch – nur die Toten scheinen die wirklich Guten zu sein.
Durch die Porträts dieser Frauen, die meiner Meinung nach nicht alle gelungen sind, entsteht ein Panorama der Gesellschaft Kamtschatkas, die sich aufgrund diverser Missstände wie fehlender Infrastruktur, Korruption und Rassismus gegenüber Indigenen und Gastarbeitern mühsam durchs Leben kämpft. Doch nicht nur das Zusammenleben der verschiedenen Volksgruppen ist schwierig, auch die Indigenen selbst haben Probleme innerhalb ihrer eigenen Gemeinschaft: Generationenkonflikte, das Festhalten an Traditionen gegen die Wünsche der Jüngeren, Engstirnigkeit und ebenso hier Rassismus.
Auch wenn es sich praktisch um einzelne Geschichten handelt: Durch das geschickte Einflechten von kurzen Sätzen, meist ganz beiläufig, erfährt man immer wieder etwas über das Schicksal der Frauen, die schon erwähnt wurden. Manchmal ist auch etwas detektivischer Scharfsinn gefragt um sich Zusammenhänge aus vorhergehenden Kapiteln zu erschließen, was das Lesevergnügen aber nicht mindert, ganz im Gegenteil. Schlussendlich versöhnt das Ende mit all den offenen Fragen, die eventuell noch geblieben sind, sodass ich das Buch mit einem zufriedenen Seufzer zur Seite legte.
Vor dem Hintergrund der grandiosen Landschaft Kamtschatkas zeigt die Autorin das Leben von Frauen, die wenig bis nichts verbindet, aber eines gemeinsam haben: Wünsche und Sehnsüchte, die wohl nie in Erfüllung gehen werden. show less

It is hard to believe that this is a first novel for Ms. Phillipps. It is extremely well-written, and she takes using differing points of view to tell a story to a new level. At first I found the differing points of view confusing, and hard to follow, but thank goodness she has a list of character families at the beginning of the book, so I referred back to that when I needed to. Partway through it became much easier to keep them straight. The setting is a remote peninsula in far eastern Russia called Kamchatka. This peninsula is located in the Pacific Ocean and is close to Alaska. The peninsula is the home to about 300,000 people which includes ethnic Russians as well as Koryaks, who are an indigenous group of people. The time is show more present-day and a horrific event occurs in August. Two young girls have disappeared from a busy street in the city of Petropavlstok. These little girls are Koryak girls. The story progresses through all the months of the year following this event, and each month presents a different point of view from people that are linked in some way to this event. Bits of the story behind the kidnapping come out as the book progresses, but all is not made clear until July of the following year. These women and families presented are strong women who have each made it through traumatic events and trials of their own. This is a mystery that binds them all together in some way. It's also a mystery where we see racial disconnects throughout. How hard are the police looking for these two little indigenous girls? Do they even think that they were taken, even after an eye-witness report gives a description of a man in a big, dark vehicle with two little girls inside? Do they blame the mother for lack of supervision of her two daughters? Racism is portrayed in such a subtle way that it's almost like an afterthought, but is glaring all the same. This is a very carefully crafted book and there are no superfluous words used throughout the entire book. A very powerful story about a little-known area with a very well-known world problem. Highly recommend. show less

On the isolated Russian Kamchatka Peninsula, two young girls are kidnapped in broad daylight in their village. The case sets the local community on edge, as the only way in or out of the region is by ship or plane, so how could they have just disappeared?

There is a lot going on here! With each chapter we are introduced to new, intriguing subset of characters, allowing the reader glimpses into many aspects of life in the Russian Far East. Just as keeping track of the sheer number of seemingly unrelated characters and their back stories begins to feel overwhelming, everything starts to (thankfully) cohere. Plot aside, one thing I enjoyed most about this book was opening my eyes to a region and a culture I've never even considered show more previously, much less read about. I found myself referring to a map more than once to orient myself and get a sense of the geography. While the story isn't riveting in the way of a real page-turner, and the ending seemed to me slightly pat, I enjoyed the story for other reasons above and recommend it. show less