The Disappearance (Library Edition) [Audio Cassette]

Efrem Sigel (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: August 1, 2009

When Joshua and Nathalie Sandler s only child, fourteen-year-old Daniel, disappears one day in a hamlet in western Massachusetts, their world changes in an instant. Over the next year, Joshua neglects everything else to search ceaselessly for their son, while Nathalie, a gifted cellist, withdraws into herself, unable to play even a note of music. With lyrical prose and building suspense, Sigel portrays the anguish of parents who, despite the crushing burden of uncertainty and grief, must continue to live their lives. We meet various townspeople with motives and secrets of their own who might be involved in the disappearance or its aftermath. As the mystery of Daniel s disappearance deepens, Joshua and Nathalie struggle to find new meaning in their existence and to discover if their fragmented marriage can ever be made whole again.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Starred Review. Sigel's powerful and elegantly crafted second novel (after The Kermanshah Transfer) explores the impact of the disappearance of a boy shortly before his 14th birthday on his parents. Daniel Sandler is adored by Joshua and Nathalie, an upper middle-class couple who summer in a small rural Massachusetts community. One day, the Sandlers return to their summer home from a mundane errand to find Daniel gone. As the hours pass with no clues to Daniel's whereabouts, their despair and anxiety escalate geometrically, and hopes that their child will return unscathed evaporate. Despite the dogged efforts of local law enforcement, weeks and then months pass without progress in the investigation. The uncertainty takes its toll on Joshua and Nathalie, both as individuals and as a couple. The mystery's resolution is secondary to Sigel's subtle and probing look at the consequences of a tragedy. (Feb.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

From Booklist

When a 14-year-old Massachusetts boy disappears, his parents’ lives are torn apart. Sigel’s novel isn’t so much about the search for a missing boy as it is about the effects of the disappearance on the boy’s parents: Joshua, his father, who spends nearly every waking hour looking for his son, and Nathalie, his mother, who withdraws ever deeper within herself. The story takes place over the course of about a year (with occasional flashbacks to the pre-disappearance family), and it is, gripping, emotional, and tender. It is the kind of novel that Avery Corman does so well: a story about real people in real situations, written in lean, efficient prose in which every word has a precise function, and there are no wasted or unnecessary words. Sigel is clearly a talented storyteller, and the novel has a deep emotional core that will resonate with any reader, whether or not they are a parent, whether or not they’ve ever gone through anything as harrowing as what these characters are going through. --David Pitt --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

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Product Details

• Audio Cassette
• Publisher: Blackstone Audio, Inc.; Unabridged library edition (August 1, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 143329253X
• ISBN-13: 978-1433292538
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 6.4 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 15.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)

More About the Author

My latest novel, "The Disappearance" (The Permanent Press), came out in 2009--only 36 years after my first novel, "The Kermanshah Transfer" (Macmillan). Why so long between novels? The short answer is that I got involved in three newsletter publishing companies, two of which I started, and along the way I wrote hundreds of periodical articles, scores of business reports and five nonfiction books about media and communications technology.

I always knew I'd go back to fiction, however, and in the late 90s I began writing short stories, and publishing them (20 so far) in various literary journals. Soon thereafter, I began work in earnest on an idea that had intrigued me for years: the disappearance of a teenage boy from his family's vacation home in Western Massachusetts.

It's an idea that came to me while standing in front of such a home, on a flawless August day, in a tiny hamlet in Western Massachusetts--the kind of place where nothing every happens. It was the juxtaposition between this idyllic setting and this awful event that provided the central tension in "The Disappearance" and that drove me to complete the book.

I grew up in Staten Island, NY, graduated from Curtis High School, then from Harvard College. After college I volunteered for the Peace Corps, serving two years as a teacher of English in the Ivory Coast. That experience and setting have formed the backdrop for several of my published short stories, including one entitled "Let There Be Light," a prizewinner in a national short story competition. I'm married to Frederica Evan and we have two sons, Jonathan and Matthew, and two grandsons, Noah and Reuben.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Powerful Novel of Loss, February 2, 2009

By 

Allison M. Campbell - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Disappearance (Hardcover)

From the first paragraph of lush, gorgeous prose, in which Sigel describes Joshua running toward the light in The Hollow, I knew this would be a heartbreaking, yet uplifting book. The title is a bit misleading, as the mystery behind the disappearance of 14-year-old Dan Sandler plays second fiddle to its aftermath in the lives of his parents, Joshua and Nathalie. I knew what the resolution to the disappearance would be, but that's not the point, and the flawless pacing made The Disappearance extremely difficult to put down. The suspense is relentless, fueled by dips into the past that begin to shed frustrating shafts of light on a mystery that at first is in absolute darkness. No one saw anything the day that Dan disappeared. There is no physical evidence of any kind. Over weeks and months, as hope fades and Nathalie and Joshua fall apart both separately and as a family, pinpoints of light reveal murky connections and slim clues. I'm normally resigned to reading in fits and starts, but I desperately wanted to shut myself in my room and read this book in one go. I stayed up far too late to find out if Joshua and Nathalie would find closure, or at the very least, a way to move on.

The Sandlers are newcomers to their summer home of The Hollow, a hamlet outside the little town of Smithfield, Massachusetts. When they return to their real lives in New York after the disappearance, Joshua throws himself into work while maintaining a grueling schedule of investigation in The Hollow: calling the police chief twice a day, spending his weekends interrogating neighbors. Nathalie's cello sits untouched as she plunges into depression. Their opposing responses to uncertainty and grief push them further and further apart. The struggle of parents following a child's death or disappearance is a story that's been told a thousand times, but Sigel's portrayal is fresh and realistic, and Nathalie and Josh are shown so clearly that their agony is almost unbearable. It is a credit to Sigel that I, too, held out hope for a happy ending to Dan's disappearance.

The small town is drawn beautifully. The police chief, Sammons, is not the usual bumbling hick portrayed in small-town law enforcement. He is thorough and determined, and most importantly, he cares deeply and never gives up on finding answers for the Sandlers. Information about the townspeople is dribbled out in a realistic, non-intrusive fashion. Coupled with Sigel's gift for description, this makes for a richly nuanced image of The Hollow and its inhabitants.

In The Disappearance, Efrem Sigel has crafted a haunting, beautiful novel of tragedy's aftermath, with deeply human characters and a satisfying resolution. <a href="http://hollybooknotes.blogspot.com">On My Bookshelf</a>

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Beautiful. Heartbreaking. Sad., February 27, 2009

By 

Candy Beauchamp "CandyTX" (Austin, TX) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Disappearance (Hardcover)

I saw this book come up on the "coming soon" list and made a mental note to look out for it, but when someone sent it to me, I lept at it! It sounded a little different than what this genre usually entails and it did not disappoint. The book itself moves a little slowly, but not in a bad way... it takes you through this couple's heartaches. It's somewhat muted, but completely and utterly engaging. It didn't make me cry or anything, but it gripped my heart and squeezed for all it was worth. It was a tough one, in that respect. I felt like I was with the father a lot, the desperate search, the look back at what he should have done, what he did wrong, what he did right, what he could have done differently. It was almost... manic? Is that the word? It was... sad.

The way the book is written is a subtle story, of love, of loss, of remorse, of letting go and moving on and looking behind. This beautifully written, reading it you know how it must go along, but you keep waiting and hoping for something different. I don't want to spoil it too much, but this is a book you experience more than read.

I don't hesitate in recommending this book. It's a really good book and I'm happy that I got the chance to read it. It's rough, but it hits home with a reality that, well, it smacks you in the face. No one likes to think of things like this, but the harsh reality is that it happens and this is a story of how one couple dealt with it. The good - and the not so good.

Get this. It's good.

5.0 out of 5 stars 'Disappearance is a heart-breaking, suspenseful..but a great read!!, February 17, 2009

By 

Phyllis Cohen (Newton, MA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Disappearance (Hardcover)

Sigel creates a heart-rending and emotional page-turning novel of two parents trying to deal with every parent's worst nightmare come true: a child goes missing and is found months later dead. The parents each deal with the tragedy in different ways: The two suffer alone, silently: They grow apart. Sigel's wonderful descriptions are touching, suspenseful. I felt their angst and pain as they try to come to terms with their grief and the uncertainty of their son's disappearance. The parents are so real that I could not help but identify with them and want to help.

Sigel is a masterful story teller: He's equally wonderful in setting the scene of the town the where the tragedy takes place and in developing the colorful characters of the townspeople. I can see the forest, the house they lived in. I have met the neighbors. This is not a run-of-the-mill whodunit -- the characters are too real for that. Indeed, I was very uncomfortable picking up this novel, but did so because Sigel's short stories are absolutely wonderful and I wanted to see how he would write a novel. I was not disappointed. For two days [I could not put the book down!]. I had to find out what happened to their son and see if the parents would remain together and move on. 'Disappearance is a great read!!