The Disappeared [Hardcover]

Kim Echlin (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: 2009

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 188 pages
• Publisher: Hamish Hamilton Canada (2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0670069086
• ISBN-13: 978-0670069088
• Product Dimensions: 8.3 x 5.6 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12.8 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (17 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #794,611 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

15 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars "My love for you has made me dead in life and you alive in death.", December 22, 2009

By 

Luan Gaines "luansos" (Dana Point, CA USA) - See all my reviews
(TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (VINE VOICE)    (HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Disappeared (Paperback)

At heart a love story, The Disappeared is as well a paean to the Cambodian genocide (1975-79), in which two million people died, through the Vietnamese occupation (1979-89) and the United Nations Transitional Authority leading to a democratic election in 1993. The sad and tragic history of the Cambodian people is the backdrop of this novel, viewed through the lens of the love of a teenaged girl for a Cambodian musician a few years older that she first meets in her native Montreal. Anne Greaves is headstrong and motherless, resenting her father's vague attempts to control her once she has fallen hopelessly in love with the long-haired Serey with his magical fingers and beautiful face. Serey plays the music of the Khmer, exotic, thrilling, when paired with the more modern tunes of the seventies.

When the borders of Cambodia reopen for a short time, Serey must return to locate his family and the lovers are parted. Distraught, Anne waits for word, but hears nothing. After six years, convinced she has seen him on a television newsreel of Cambodia, Anne steps out of her life in Montreal and takes a flight to Phnom Penh, where she uses her facility with the Khmer language to begin her search. Both tragic and beautiful, this book is filled with the language of love and loss, the meeting of true soul mates and the damage of genocide on an entire population of innocents. Following her destiny, Anne never falters, as sure in her love for Serey as the first night she hears him play in the Montreal nightclub. Echlin embraces Cambodia with an open heart, witness to the beauty, ritual, tradition and tragedy of a place caught in the juggernaut of history. Reunited, the lovers refuse to be parted, even in death.

In prose that is as both elegiac and profoundly sad, the author writes with the timelessness of those without the boundaries of convention. While Cambodia is ground down by years of brutality and deceit, the people rise above the din of death, chanting in one voice for the disappeared. A painful story indeed, but one that must be told. Luan Gaines/2009.

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Still on the Fence, April 9, 2010

By 

A. Reader (Canada) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Disappeared (Paperback)

The Disappeared" is a different kind of book than what I would normally select for myself. Now that I am finished reading the story, I'm uncertain if I'm pleased or disappointed for stepping out of my comfort zone. Set during the Cambodian genocide in the 1970's, "The Disappeared" follows the lives of two lovers-- Anne, a Canadian, and Serey, a Cambodian student.

There are a few things that I found off-putting about the novel. First of all, the author writes in a series of first person recollections. I found the flow of thoughts to read in a disjointed manner. I think this writing mechanism was supposed to represent the fragmentation of memories (and it did), but it also seemed melodramatic. Second of all, some phrases and conversations occured partially in untranslated French, and because of this I felt like I might be missing details in the story. But really, what bothered me the most was the portrayal of Anne and Serey's "love." I found myself wondering if what they had together could truly be defined as love. There was never a sense of the characters drawing strength or courage from each other. Anne makes sacrifices for Serey, but does he ever truly reciprocate? It seemed like their "love" made them secretive, anguished, reckless and even a bit self destructive. That is certainly not the kind of love that I aspire to.

Regardless, "The Disappeared" is a lovely story of survival, loss, sorrow and friendship. It paints a stark and honest picture of Cambodia and the struggles of its people. The secondary characters are intriguing and in many cases, more interesting than the primary characters. I thought "The Disappeared" was a good book, and a worthwhile read. But I don't recommend you place it at the top of your book list.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Gorgeous writing, September 12, 2010

By 

Figmentspot - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Disappeared (Paperback)

This book is not even so much about the story, which in itself is stunning, beautiful, harrowing; it's about language. It's about poetry. In this it reminds me much of Jeanette Winterson. Some moments:


I needed memory and hope and since I could find them nowhere else, I looked for them in the declension of verbs. Words swallowed me like a deep river.

I hear a voice cry out anguish. If this is a man? Human music turned into a note of music, the rhythm of a sentence. Men have invented a word for this. They call it sublime.

The Khmer Rouge used words to kill the people.

I think I began to read this way, studying the words in an open book, waiting for absence to be filled.


I was spellbound by "The Disappeared." Read it like a crazy person. Have ordered Echlin's other work. Breathtaking.