The Disappeared

“The familiar tale of star-crossed lovers is revisited with gripping immediacy and compelling freshness . . . a voice readers will not soon forget” (Stephanie Kallos, national bestselling author).
 
A fiercely beautiful love story for the ages, The Disappeared traces one woman’s three-decades-long journey from the peaceful streets of Montreal to the war-torn villages of Cambodia, as a brief affair turns into a grand passion of loss and remembrance, set against one of the most brutal genocides of our time.
 
When sixteen-year-old Anne Greves first meets Serey, a Cambodian student forced to leave his country during the rise of the Khmer Rouge, she never considers the consequences of their complicated romance. Swept up in the infatuation of young love, Anne ignores her father’s wishes and embraces her relationship with Serey in Montreal’s smoky jazz clubs and in his cramped yellow bedroom. But when the borders of Cambodia are reopened, Serey must risk his life to return home in search of his family. A decade later, Anne will travel halfway around the world to find him, and to save their love from the same tragic forces that first brought them together . . .
 
“Spellbinding . . . There is something of Marguerite Duras in these pages . . . Exquisite . . . [Echlin] creates alchemy.”—The New York Times Book Review (Editor’s Choice)
 
“Astonishing . . . The sheer beauty of Echlin’s writing—as lyrical as it is honest—keeps us reading through the pain.”—The Boston Globe
 
“Electrifying . . . first and foremost a love story. It tests erotic and familial love against distinctions of nationality.”—The Guardian