"It is always an adventure and a delight to read Heidi Julavits.
Intelligent and ambitious, but also heavy-handed and alienating." - Kirkus Reviews "A searing final section very nearly redeems all this clutter. While one can easily get confused about what is real and what is imagined, readers who surrender to the narrative may be rewarded with rich insights about losing a parent." - Library Journal "This novel is reminiscent of Arthur Phillips's The Egyptologist: clever, humorous, with supernatural elements. But the overall effect is magical, and Julavits's often acerbic prose generates laughs despite the sad reality of Julia's life." - Publishers Weekly
"Packed with a revolving cast of faces, the story frequently switches into the past, especially at the outset, which can create confusion. Instead, monstrous mother-figures and life-or-death power struggles evoke poignant questions about blame and forgiveness, inheritance and independence, memory and grief, and the obdurate mysteries of trust and love." - Booklist "In a convoluted plot stoked by diabolical humor and wry suspense, Julavits nearly squanders the novel's potential for deeper inquires. As Julia sifts through ghosts and astral clues, everything she thought she knew of her mother is called into question, and she discovers that her ability to know the minds of others - including her own - goes far deeper than she ever imagined.Īs powerful and gripping as all of Julavits's acclaimed novels, The Vanishers is a stunning meditation on grief, female rivalry, and the furious power of a daughter's love. But others have noted Julia's emerging gifts, and soon she's recruited to track down an elusive missing person - a controversial artist who might have a connection to her mother. Julia retreats to a faceless job in Manhattan. As the two lock horns, and Julia gains power, Madame Ackermann launches a desperate psychic attack that leaves Julia the victim of a crippling ailment. Instead, she subjects Julia to the humiliation of reliving her mother's suicide when Julia was an infant. Her mentor, the legendary Madame Ackermann, afflicted by jealousy, refuses to pass the torch to her young disciple. Julia Severn is a student at an elite institute for psychics. Is the bond between mother and daughter unbreakable, even by death? From the acclaimed novelist and The Believer editor Heidi Julavits, a wildly imaginative and emotionally intense novel about mothers, daughters, and the psychic damage women can inflict on one another.
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