Genre Fiction
![Alison Espach - [object Object] author](https://res.cloudinary.com/readsomnia/image/upload/authors/a_a_alison_espach.jpg)
Notes on Your Sudden Disappearance: A Novel
"Riveting" ―People
From Alison Espach, author of the New York Times Editor's Choice novel The Adults, comes a dazzlingly unconventional love story for readers of Ask Again, Yes and Tell the Wolves I'm Home.
For much of her life, Sally Holt has been mystified by the things her older sister, Kathy, seems to have been born knowing. Kathy has answers for all of Sally's questions about life, about love, and about Billy Barnes, a rising senior and local basketball star who mans the concession stand at the town pool. The girls have been fascinated by Billy ever since he jumped off the roof in elementary school, but Billy has never shown much interest in them until the summer before Sally begins eighth grade. By then, their mutual infatuation with Billy is one of the few things the increasingly different sisters have in common. Sally spends much of that summer at the pool, watching in confusion and excitement as her sister falls deeper in love with Billy―until a tragedy leaves Sally's life forever intertwined with his.
Opening in the early nineties and charting almost two decades of shared history and missed connections, Notes on Your Sudden Disappearance is both a breathtaking love story about two broken people who are unexplainably, inconveniently drawn to each other and a wryly astute coming-of-age tale brimming with unexpected moments of joy.
From Alison Espach, author of the New York Times Editor's Choice novel The Adults, comes a dazzlingly unconventional love story for readers of Ask Again, Yes and Tell the Wolves I'm Home.
For much of her life, Sally Holt has been mystified by the things her older sister, Kathy, seems to have been born knowing. Kathy has answers for all of Sally's questions about life, about love, and about Billy Barnes, a rising senior and local basketball star who mans the concession stand at the town pool. The girls have been fascinated by Billy ever since he jumped off the roof in elementary school, but Billy has never shown much interest in them until the summer before Sally begins eighth grade. By then, their mutual infatuation with Billy is one of the few things the increasingly different sisters have in common. Sally spends much of that summer at the pool, watching in confusion and excitement as her sister falls deeper in love with Billy―until a tragedy leaves Sally's life forever intertwined with his.
Opening in the early nineties and charting almost two decades of shared history and missed connections, Notes on Your Sudden Disappearance is both a breathtaking love story about two broken people who are unexplainably, inconveniently drawn to each other and a wryly astute coming-of-age tale brimming with unexpected moments of joy.
Editorial Reviews
An Indie Next pick for June 2022
A USA Today "Must Read"
Named a "Most Anticipated Book of May" by The Millions
"Incongruously funny...Ms. Espach uses irony well."
―Sam Sacks, The Wall Street Journal
"Inventive and powerful...Espach captures the minutiae of love and loss with unflinching clarity and profound compassion, and pulls off the second-person point of view unusually well. Readers will be deeply moved."
―Publishers Weekly (starred review)
"This tragicomic bildungsroman in the shadow of loss will invade your heart and hold on tight."
―Kirkus
"A marvelous exercise in voice…Never contrived, the novel is beautifully written, making even the quotidian details of Sally's life fascinating, in part because the story invites such a deep emotional involvement with the fully realized characters and, indeed, with the entirety of this splendid and memorable book."
―Booklist (starred review)
"Notes on Your Sudden Disappearance is heartbreaking and funny, often in the same sentence--a deeply felt, finely wrought, and highly satisfying novel. Alison Espach has created a family whose every sorrow, joy, and idiosyncrasy is utterly, vibrantly real."
―Claire Lombardo, New York Times bestselling author of The Most Fun We Ever Had
"Tender, eloquent, and wise, this is an intensely beautiful book by a supremely gifted writer."
―Karen Thompson Walker, author of The Dreamers
"Unputdownable, insightful, funny, and emotionally profound. A book that swirls and glitters with strangeness and delight, as much a portrait of grief as a love story, both love and grief hinging on the ways we negotiate with things we cannot control, how we sit in the cockpit of the self, what we dare to share with others and what remains ineffable. Gorg...
A USA Today "Must Read"
Named a "Most Anticipated Book of May" by The Millions
"Incongruously funny...Ms. Espach uses irony well."
―Sam Sacks, The Wall Street Journal
"Inventive and powerful...Espach captures the minutiae of love and loss with unflinching clarity and profound compassion, and pulls off the second-person point of view unusually well. Readers will be deeply moved."
―Publishers Weekly (starred review)
"This tragicomic bildungsroman in the shadow of loss will invade your heart and hold on tight."
―Kirkus
"A marvelous exercise in voice…Never contrived, the novel is beautifully written, making even the quotidian details of Sally's life fascinating, in part because the story invites such a deep emotional involvement with the fully realized characters and, indeed, with the entirety of this splendid and memorable book."
―Booklist (starred review)
"Notes on Your Sudden Disappearance is heartbreaking and funny, often in the same sentence--a deeply felt, finely wrought, and highly satisfying novel. Alison Espach has created a family whose every sorrow, joy, and idiosyncrasy is utterly, vibrantly real."
―Claire Lombardo, New York Times bestselling author of The Most Fun We Ever Had
"Tender, eloquent, and wise, this is an intensely beautiful book by a supremely gifted writer."
―Karen Thompson Walker, author of The Dreamers
"Unputdownable, insightful, funny, and emotionally profound. A book that swirls and glitters with strangeness and delight, as much a portrait of grief as a love story, both love and grief hinging on the ways we negotiate with things we cannot control, how we sit in the cockpit of the self, what we dare to share with others and what remains ineffable. Gorg...
Readers Top Reviews
Brandi GollihueKa
This book wasn't quite what I expected but a few pages in and I got really into it. Sally isn't a very likeable character but I found I was sympathetic because she's so socially awkward. Even after losing her sister, she carries on her obsessions. This was a dramatic coming of age story - no thriller here.
