Vanishing Acts
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4.5 • 26 Ratings
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- $13.99
Publisher Description
'The compelling story weaves characters and plot so richly that it's impossible to take sides in the questions of what was justified and what wasn't.' - Woman's Day
'A polished and riveting read.' - Australian Women's Weekly
Delia Hopkins has led a charmed life. Raised in rural New Hampshire by her widowed father Andrew, she now has a young daughter, a handsome fiance, and her own Search and Rescue bloodhound which she uses to find missing persons. But as she plans her wedding, she is plagued by flashbacks of a life she can't recall. What are these memories and what do they mean? In shock and confusion, Delia must search out the truth among these newly discovered recollections even when they threaten to devastate her life, and the lives of those she loves most.
With consummate skill and sensitivity, Jodi Picoult examines what happens when the past we have been running from catches up to us, and questions who we trust to tell us the story of our lives before we are capable of remembering it ourselves. Vanishing Acts is an impressive exploration of the very nature and power of memory.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Delia Hopkins was six years old when her father allowed her to be his assistant in the amateur magic act he performed at the local senior center's annual Christmas pageant. "I learned a lot that night," recalls Delia, who is now 32, at the start of Picoult's absorbing new novel (her 12th, after My Sister's Keeper). "That people don't vanish into thin air...." She has come to know this even better as an adult: she makes her living finding missing people with her own search-and-rescue bloodhound. As she prepares for her wedding, however, Delia has a flash of memory that is so vivid yet so wildly out-of-place among the other memories from her idyllic New Hampshire upbringing that she describes it to a childhood friend, who happens to be a reporter. Soon, her whole world and the world of the widowed father she adores is turned upside down. Her marriage to her toddler's father, a loving but still struggling recovering alcoholic, is put on hold as she is forced to conduct a search-and-rescue mission on her own past and identity. It will cut to the heart of what she holds to be true and good. As in previous novels, Picoult creates compelling, three-dimensional characters who tell a story in alternating voices about what it might mean to be a good parent and a good person, to be true to ourselves and those we love. Picoult weaves together plot and characterization in a landscape that is fleshed out in rich, journalistic detail, so that readers will come away with intriguing questions rather than pat answers. Author tour.
