The Disappeared: Stories

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A collection of stories that trace the threads of loss and displacement running through all our lives, by the acclaimed, award-winning author of The Theory of Light and Matter "What a beautiful book about the profound mystery of ordinary life." -Alix Ohlin, author of We Want What We Want A collection of stories that trace the threads of loss and displacement running through all our lives, by the acclaimed, award-winning author of The Theory of Light and Matter "What a beautiful book about the profound mystery of ordinary life." -Alix Ohlin, author of We Want What We Want A husband and wife hear a mysterious bump in the night. A father mourns the closeness he has lost with his son. A friendship with a married couple turns into a dangerous codependency. With gorgeous sensitivity, assurance, and a propulsive sense of menace, these stories center on disappearances both literal and figurative-lives and loves that are cut short, the vanishing of one's youthful self. From San Antonio to Austin, from the clamor of a crowded restaurant to the cigarette at a lonely kitchen table, Andrew Porter captures each of these relationships mid-flight, every individual life punctuated by loss and beauty and need. The Disappeared reaffirms the undeniable artistry of a contemporary master of the form.

Reviews

"A quietly astonishing collection . . . These stories are cleareyed and unadorned, invested with just as much authority as they require to do their appointed work, like a row of votive candles in the dark recess of a church. Justin Taylor, New York Times Book Review

He has been able, like Chekhov before, to reach an aesthetic of regret. [Porters men] are fantastic examples of modern character and all its necessary anxiety. Chicago Review of Books

[One of the] dont miss collections by rising stars. Library Journal

A great paradox sits attheheart of Andrew Porters excellent new story collection: How can we seem so firmly and comfortably settled in our lives, and yet be so utterly, desperately lost Porter has a rare feel fortheemotions that reveal our truest selves, and fortheweight ofthedoubts, regrets and memories that pile up astheyears go by. Love, loss, defeats large and small,these are all rendered to haunting effect in TheDisappeared, and its a testament to Porters brilliant writing thatthese gorgeous, gutting stories haunt me still. Ben Fountain, author of Billy Lynns Long Halftime Walk

The stories in The Disappeared are works of genius for precisely this reason. As you read, youre bound to find yourself, like me . . . marveling at Porters perfect sentences, and the world he creates for us, one in which we cant help but be present. Kristopher Jansma (in Electric Literature), author of Why We Came to the City

Porter shows his literary prowess in The Disappeared. Dallas Morning News

Every story in the collection is beautifully constructed, consisting of elegant, at times lyrical prose, is engaging, and is propelled by a compelling, astute narrative voice. New York Journal of Books

The stories in The Disappeared, like his debut, are precisely tuned to the micro moments of our everyday lives, which is to say, in his stories, Porter continues to show us wise, patient, and astute perspectives on the human condition. Keith Pilapil Lesmeister, BOMB

Let me phrase this as a question: Is there an American writer who writes such exquisite, heartbreaking and achingly memorable stories as Andrew Porter I cant name one. Ill have The Disappeared with me, as Ill have The Theory of Light and Matterfor the duration. Peter Orner, author of Esther Stories

These tremendously moving, elegant, neo-Cheeveresque gems are fantastic. Too much wine, too much love, too much marriage, too many misunderstandingsall of it makes for deeply perfect reading. Deb Olin Unferth, author of Barn 8

Poignant and devastating . . . Porter is a master of the form. Booklist (starred)

These tender, touching stories are about things we hold onto, our anxieties and hopes and dreams, and the things that slip through our fingerslove, youth, the people we used to be. What a beautiful book about the profound mystery of ordinary life. Alix Ohlin, author of Dual Citizens

Read this excellent collection and youll come away convinced that the secret subject of all writing is time. Certainly its the oldest, a little older than love itself, and in Andrew Porters supple vision time is our most intimate antagonist, our lover and our foe. Its time that turns a passing doubt into a haunted house, time that makes of our most cherished hopes an echo chamber of losses, time that breaks even the strongest hearts. And yet without time and our suffering we would have no soul, and these stories have soul to spare. Italo Calvino claims a classic never finishes saying what it has to say, and by that measure The Disappeared is classic. Charles DAmbrosio, author of The Dead Fish Museum

[An] excellent collection . . . full of insight and moral clarity, with the type of assured voice that cant be taught.Brian Castleberry, author of Nine Shiny Objects

At their best, short stories can articulate a feeling you could never otherwise explain. At their very best, you recognize those feelings from your own life. That was my experience, time and time again, readingThe Disappearedby Andrew Porter. Ethan Chatagnier, author of Singer Distance

"What an exquisite collection! Each story was virtually perfect. Infused with longing and existential loss, with cigarettes and wine, with mid-life couples searching for something . . . This was probably one of my two most recommended books of the year. Leslie Pietrzyk, author of This Angel on My Chest

Porter writes with honesty and grace about men and women struggling to make sense of their shifting lives.Chuck Augello, Identity Theory

A big-hearted story collection thats helping me pay more attention to the flow of life right now. Just beautiful. Robert Anthony Siegel, author of Criminals

Author Bio

ANDREW PORTER is the author of the story collection The Theory of Light and Matter and the novel In Between Days. A graduate of the Iowa Writers' Workshop, he has received a Pushcart Prize, a James Michener/Copernicus Fellowship, and the Flannery O'Connor Award for Short Fiction. His work has appeared in One Story, The Threepenny Review, Ploughshares, Narrative, The Southern Review, and on Public Radio's Selected Shorts. Currently, he teaches fiction writing