Synopses & Reviews
Julia Severn is a student at an elite institute for psychics. Her mentor, the legendary Madame Ackermann, afflicted by jealousy, subjects Julia to the humiliation of reliving her mother's suicide when Julia was an infant. As the two lock horns, and Julia gains power, Madame Ackermann launches a desperate psychic attack that leaves Julia the victim of a crippling ailment. But others have noted Julia's emerging gifts, and soon she's recruited to track down an elusive missing person who might have a connection to her mother. As Julia sifts through ghosts and astral clues, everything she thought she knew of her mother is called into question, and she discovers that her ability to know the minds of others goes far deeper than she ever imagined.
Review
"...wry, witty...magical...Julavits's often acerbic prose generates laughs despite the sad reality of Julia's life." - Publishers Weekly
"...searing...Intelligent and ambitious..." - Kirkus Reviews
Review
"Xe Sands turns in a stellar performance in this audio edition of Julavits's latest, providing narration that is secretive and seductive...Sands offers up a host of spot-on voices and accents. The result is intriguing, whimsical, often funny, and thoroughly enjoyable." - Publishers Weekly
"Narrator Xe Sands connects viscerally with listeners...Her languid reading evokes the dreamlike quality of the prose and softens Julia's raw suffering...As Sands's slow, clear reading dramatizes the psychological effects of abandonment and exploitation, she grounds Julia's disturbing yet gripping journey." - AudioFile Magazine
"...darkly comic... sharp-eyed, sardonic, hilarious...Julia's narrative voice is superb. Funny, self-deprecating, exquisitely attuned...remarkable." - New York Times
"...searing...Intelligent and ambitious..." - Kirkus Reviews
"Julavits's talents as a writer are evident in the precision of her observations..." - The New Yorker
"...clever, humorous..." - Library Journal
4 out of 5 stars. "...gripping, and often quite funny...a swift, thrilling and spellbindingly strange tale." - Time Out New York
"A psychic attacked by her jealous mentor discovers the depth of her powers in this gripping novel." - O Magazine, "17 Must-Read Books in March 2012"
"Bristling with wicked humor and sharp-edged irony, The Vanishers explores the ways in which the dead can haunt the living and the often painful persistence of memory." - The Huffington Post
"Julavits balances the emotional vertigo with sharp wit...exquisite...intriguing..." - The Seattle Times
"...this grows more fascinating - and mysterious - the more you read...here is a novelist whose audacity is matched only by her inventiveness and power...she's funny, too." - SF Weekly
"Julavits has a facility with words that makes every detail enchanting..." - eMusic
"...wild and funny and macabre, with the propulsive energy of a good mystery...wildly intelligent book...great fun. Books, Julavits says, are her religion, and this one will find believers." - The Globe and Mail (Canada)
"Julavits parks her readers in a setting that is slightly off-kilter but not entirely fantastical...Julavits's playful way with words enriches a story that might otherwise be bleaker." - Los Angeles Review of Books
Synopsis
A wildly imaginative and emotionally intense novel about mothers and daughters.
About the Author
Heidi Julavits is the author of two previous novels, The Mineral Palace and The Effect of Living Backwards, as well as a collaborative book, Hotel Andromeda, with the artist Jenny Gage. She is a founding editor of The Believer, and her writings have appeared in Esquire, Time, The New York Times, McSweeney's among other places. She lives in Manhattan and Maine.