author of The Little School: Tales of Disappea Dr. Alicia Partnoy
Rebecca Sanford’s novel will capture your heart and your imagination. Carefully researched and powerfully written, The Disappeared is a necessary book to help us find the hundreds of children—now women and men—who were stolen from their families in the Argentina of my own tragedy.”
Booklist
Sanford’s debut is a wrenching reminder of the costs of history, the human losses behind politics, and the burden of keeping secrets.”
Foreword Reviews
The prose is naturalistic, aching, and apprehensive; the search for truth, no matter how determined, is plagued by self-doubt…The chapters jump across geography and decades, befitting the fragmented histories and selfhoods resulting from the orchestrated ‘disappearings.’”
New York Times bestselling author of House of Sand Andre Dubus III
Written in spare yet wonderfully evocative prose, The Disappeared captures the brutal realities of a shared buried history, one that we can now never afford to forget. Rebecca J. Sanford is a gifted novelist, and I highly recommend this deeply compelling and important book.”
Lost in Bookland
Rarely does a book capture the raw emotions of a tragic historical event as powerfully as The Disappeared by Rebecca Sanford…Sanford’s writing is both evocative and poignant. She has a remarkable ability to breathe life into her characters, making their experiences palpable.”
New York Times bestselling author of The Lost Apot Sarah Penner
Equally heartbreaking and uplifting, Rebecca Sanford’s The Disappeared is a testament to the enduring devotion of a mother to her children. A powerful, richly crafted debut by a gifted new voice in historical fiction.”
Andre Dubus III
Written in spare yet wonderfully evocative prose, The Disappeared captures the brutal realities of a shared buried history, one that we can now never afford to forget. Rebecca J. Sanford is a gifted novelist, and I highly recommend this deeply compelling and important book.”
Library Journal
★ 06/21/2024
DEBUT Sanford's first novel is a fast-paced exploration of responsibility, accountability, and activism in tumultuous times. In Argentina in 1976, when Lorena Ledesma and her husband become two of the thousands of disappeared people who have been imprisoned by the country's military dictatorship, it is up to her mother, Esme, to care for their young son and try to find them. Esme joins an underground group of mothers and grandmothers who dare to speak out about the spreading injustice, even as they also risk imprisonment. Decades later, in 2005 New York City, grown adoptee Rachel Sprague's search for her biological family reveals a connection to the Disappeared. This revelation throws her adoptive family into emotional turmoil. Sanford's character-driven novel focuses on the strength of real-life mothers and children of Argentina's Disappeared, and the straightforward writing and plot make the novel accessible to readers unfamiliar with the subject matter. Sanford neither goes into vivid detail nor shies away from the brutality inflicted upon those imprisoned, all while showcasing the dangers of fighting to save and honor the Disappeared. VERDICT A must-read for historical fiction fans and a real-world cautionary tale of complacency and tyranny.—Elisha Sheffer
