Description
From the renowned Russian author of In Memory of Memory, a stunning new dreamlike work about exile and art
The writer M has lived in the city of B ever since her homeland declared war on a neighboring state. Exiled, she is unable to write there and suffers from loneliness, shame, and despair, but then M is invited to give a reading at a literary festival in a nearby country. After a series of missed connections and mishaps, including losing her phone, she finds herself all alone in the wrong coastal town, befriending a local man and attending the circus…
In this brief interlude, severed from reality, it seems as if M may finally escape from herself, from her past, from her nationality. She could start all over from scratch and join the circus. Written in Maria Stepanova’s rich and hypnotic prose, The Disappearing Act oscillates between reality and dream, between an oppressive present and a lost past, between life and literature.
Reviews
"Stepanova's prose work is discursive, expansively imaginative in its musings and digressions. The translation by Dugdale is lucid, vivid and fluid." — Barbara Conaty, Library Journal
"Captivating and capacious... The novel comes across as an urgent call to resist complacency and recover one's vitality in the face of injustice. It's a stunner." — Publishers Weekly (starred review)
"The Disappearing Act is a witty, unsettling and profound reflection on belonging and estrangement." — Abdulrazak Gurnah
"Poignant, ironizing its own ironies, as M finds two wrongs—any number of wrongs—never make a right."" — Michael Autrey, Booklist
"This is an intimate and profound study of liminality and identity from one of the most important writers of our time." — Pierce Alquist, Book Riot
"Dugdale’s translation is a loving one, beautifully rendering Stepanova’s melodic and rhythmic prose into precise English… With The Disappearing Act, Stepanova’s talents have grown to include a magical quality, and it leaves me longing for more of her tricks." — Olga Ziberbourg, On the Seawall
"Expect entrancing prose suffused with wry observations, a little humour and memories of lost worlds—the world lost with the fall of the Soviet Union; the world lost to Vladimir Putin; the world lost to the Ukraine war—more redolent of great poetry than contemporary fiction." — Frieze
Also By: Maria Stepanova 
Holy Winter 20/21
Paperback, 2024
A deeply moving poem about winter and exile, war and the pandemic from “Russia’s greatest living poet” (Poetry) and the acclaimed author of In Memory of Memory
In Memory of Memory
Paperback, 2021
An exploration of life at the margins of history from one of Russia’s most exciting contemporary writers
Shortlisted for the 2021 International Booker Prize
Winner of the MLA Lois Roth Translation...In Memory of Memory
E Book, 2021
An exploration of life at the margins of history from one of Russia’s most exciting contemporary writers
Shortlisted for the 2021 International Booker Prize
Winner of the MLA Lois Roth Translation...
Holy Winter 20/21
E Book
A deeply moving poem about winter and exile, war and the pandemic from “Russia’s greatest living poet” (Poetry) and the acclaimed author of In Memory of Memory
Also By: Sasha Dugdale
Holy Winter 20/21
Paperback, 2024
A deeply moving poem about winter and exile, war and the pandemic from “Russia’s greatest living poet” (Poetry) and the acclaimed author of In Memory of MemoryIn Memory of Memory
Paperback, 2021
An exploration of life at the margins of history from one of Russia’s most exciting contemporary writers
Shortlisted for the 2021 International Booker Prize
Winner of the MLA Lois Roth Translation...In Memory of Memory
E Book, 2021
An exploration of life at the margins of history from one of Russia’s most exciting contemporary writers
Shortlisted for the 2021 International Booker Prize
Winner of the MLA Lois Roth Translation...Holy Winter 20/21
E Book
A deeply moving poem about winter and exile, war and the pandemic from “Russia’s greatest living poet” (Poetry) and the acclaimed author of In Memory of Memory
