The Disappearance

The Disappearance

by Geneviève Jurgensen (Author)

Synopsis

How do you live once your daughters are dead? 'Every parent's ultimate nightmare is the prospect of something happening to their children. It happened to Genevieve. One night in 1980, her sister-in-law collected her seven- and four-year-old daughters from Paris to drive them to her in-laws. They never got there. Both children were killed in a terrible accident and somehow she has managed to describe the aftermath in this heart-rending collection of letters to a friend. I could hardly see the words of this beautiful, lucid and intelligent book through my tears.' KATE FIGES, Woman's Journal Genevieve Jurgensen took her time, and then wrote down what happened, and how she carried on. Her clear, precise, brief book is an exceptionally moving and powerful testament to the mark a life -- however brief, however infant -- can make on the world. Without ever being sentimental or preachy, this book manages to make you, the reader, for at least a passing instant, miss two lively little girls you never actually met -- and thus you have a sense of what it must be like for Jurgensen, to miss them every waking hour, every day, forever.

$10.40

Quantity

2 in stock

More Information

Format: Paperback
Pages: 176
Edition: New
Publisher: Flamingo
Published: 04 Oct 1999

ISBN 10: 0006551211
ISBN 13: 9780006551218

Media Reviews
'The Disappearance is simply heart-rending... an impressively simple book, beautifully translated by Adriana Hunter. It will surely join C S Lewis's A Grief Observed as a classic of the genre, a literary answer to the pain of loss.' ROBERT MCCRUM, Observer
Author Bio
GENEVIEVE JURGENSEN is the author of previous novels, all published by Laffont in France, and of several books for children. La Disparition was published to critical acclaim in France and in translation in Germany. ADRIANA HUNTER is a writer, interpreter and translator. She lives in Norfolk, and has two children of her own.