National Book Award Finalist: A man, woman, and child are bound by a
desperate need--and a terrible secret--in this suspenseful,
"astonishing" novel (Vogue).
Aubrey Wallace is the kind of man no one notices. Dotty Johnson is the
kind of woman no one can ignore. One afternoon, they both disappear from
the small Vermont town where they live. The next day, two hundred miles
away, a toddler is kidnapped from her Massachusetts home.
For the next five years, Aubrey, Dotty, and the kidnapped
child**--united by a mix of strange love, desperate need, and the
crime that brought them together--**are trapped in a nomadic existence
governed by their constant fear of discovery. Canny, the little girl,
becomes Aubrey's entire existence. But Dotty wants out. She is tired of
being saddled with this fearful man, and when she meets a brutal
ex-convict, the wheels of Canny's return to her natural parents are
wrenched fatally into motion.
A dark, riveting tale about the impulses and weaknesses that underlie an
evil act, Vanished was nominated for both the National Book Award and
the PEN/Faulkner Award, and marked the debut of the New York
Times-bestselling author of Songs in Ordinary Time and A Dangerous
Woman.
