'What makes this book gripping... is its truthfulness. It is a sort of detective story after all, with Brookner as the sleuth... applying her own devastating insight' - Sunday Times
Slowly, almost imperceptibly, Anna Durrant's acquaintances realize that Anna has gone missing. Normally so reliable, so helpful, she has neglected what duties remain to her after the death of her mother and taken flight. Lawrence Halliday, the family doctor, is the first to notice Anna's disappearance. then Mrs Marsh, who has hopes of Anna as a daughter-in-law. As for Anna herself, she has not so much disappeared as ceased to exist as the woman they all thought they knew.
'What a humorous and human as well as accomplished artist she is' - London Review of Books
'Brookner has written a brilliant, immaculately crafted work... weaving as she does an irresistible spell' - Daily Mail
