The Vanishing Act
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4.0 • 1 Rating
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- $13.99
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- $13.99
Publisher Description
Shortlisted, Commonwealth Book Prize, 2012
This is a story about a snow-covered island you won't find on any map.
It's Minou's story.
A year ago, her mama walked out into the rain and never came back.
It's a story about a magician and a priest and a dog called No Name.
It's about Papa's endless hunt for the truth.
It's about a dead boy who listens, and Minou's search for Mama's voice.
And it's about discovering what love is.
The Vanishing Act, Mette Jakobsen's spellbinding debut novel, is a story you will never forget.
Mette Jakobsen was born in Copenhagen, Denmark in 1964 but now lives in Newtown, Sydney. She has a PhD in Creative Writing and a BA in philosophy. In 2004 she graduated from NIDA’s Playwrights Studio and several of her plays have been broadcast on ABC national radio. The Vanishing Act is her first novel.
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'A beautiful, moving fable.' Eva Hornung
'This book is a precious thing. I want to keep it in a painted box with a raven feather and sea-polished stones, taking it out when I feel the need to visit Minou on her island again. The best stories change you. I am not the same after THE VANISHING ACT as I was before.' Erin Morgenstern, author of The Night Circus
'A perfectly poised, fable-like tale of loss, written with delightful whimsy, deep empathy and a beguiling sense of innocence. This book is a gem.' Graeme Base
'A beautiful, moving fable. The Vanishing Act is one of the best books I have read in a long time.' Eva Hornung
'A stunning new voice for fans of literary fiction…a thoroughly modern Hans Christian Andersen fairytale.' Bookseller+Publisher
'Mette Jakobsen’s first novel is a gossamer web, a work of fragile beauty…The Vanishing Act stages a vibrant tournament between the life of reason and that of imagination…. At the heart of The Vanishing Act is Minou, a delightfully rendered portrayal of innocence coping with loss, of someone who has found a great deal to explore in a tiny space...It suggests love can grow in rocky places; that freedom is not the triumph of the ego.' Saturday Age
'What Jakobsen has done so well with the characters who populate these pages is make them both fascinating and flawed, but always without judgement. She lets us arrive at our own conclusions; these characters and their island cast their own quiet spell long after the final page.' Readings
'This book is a sharp, elegantly written fable about loss, loneliness and taking comfort in what you have. The characters are redolent of some of Hemingway or Steinbeck’s best. The Vanishing Act, surely the more adventurous Australian novels of the year, is a pleasure.' Sunday Mail Brisbane
'All of my favourite elements are in The Vanishing Act by Mette Jakobsen. It is about an island and the ocean and a search for truth. Simple writing packed full of meaning and feeling told from a child’s point of view. It is now one of the special books that sit on my desk, marked and read over and over. I pick it up when I need to ground myself in good writing. Many have described it as a fable but to me it is just a wonderful story told with a voice that I wanted to listen to. A voice that will stay with me for a long time.' Favel Parrett, Sydney Morning Herald's best books of 2011
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Jakobsen's debut novel is the refreshingly pared-down story of one girl's tiny world and the life lessons available in the smallest of existences. A year after Minou's Mama disappeared from the tiny island where she and her Papa make their home, the body of a dead boy washes up on shore. Everyone else on the island Priest, Boxman, and Papa believes that Mama is dead, but Minou remains unconvinced. Following the logic-based deductions imparted to her by her philosopher father, Minou relives the events leading up to Mama's disappearance, searching for signs and hopeful that the dead boy may provide a clue. The night before Mama left, she, Minou, and Boxman, a circus man with a broken heart, had collaborated on a dangerous act that made Mama vanish, and Mama's yearning for an existence outside the island is made painfully clear. The sweet yet pragmatic 12-year-old girl watches Papa's search for "the absolute truth" grate against Mama's love for the imagined, slowly unraveling their partnership. Jakobsen creates a lot with a little and builds on universals, proving that some truths are, in fact, fundamental.
