The Artist Of Disappearance-Quality Guarantee

Description

Finalist for the Pen/Faulkner Award for Fiction

“The excellentstrength [the novellas] share is a gracefulness and dreamlike sonority,reminiscent of writers like Jhumpa Lahiri and W.G. Sebald, whereinstrange evolutions of solitary lives are the rule, and readers are heldby the stately, hypnotic dignity of the voice that tells them.” – San Francisco Chronicle

Setin modern India, these three novellas move beyond the cities to placesstill haunted by the past, and to characters who are, each in their ownway, masters of self-effacement. An unnamed government official iscalled upon to inspect a faded mansion of forgotten treasures where hediscovers a surprise “relic.” A translator blurs the line between writerand translator, and in so doing risks unraveling her desires andachievements. In the title novella, a hermit hidden away in the woodswith a secret is discovered by a film crew, which compels him towithdraw even further until he magically disappears . . .

Richand evocative, remarkable in their clarity and sensuous in theirtelling, these novellas remind us of the extraordinary yet delicatepower of this pre-eminent writer.

“Desai, at her best, offers enchanting, subtle, and deeply observed portraits of layered characters trapped between worlds.” – Daily Beast

“Lingers in the memory the same way these landscapes and people of India prove impossible to forget.” – Boston Globe