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.
"Events are presented with such authority that they hum with both the authenticity of real life and the mythic power of fable."
The New York Times
"An impressive debut . . . A work that is unusual and rich."
San Francisco Chronicle
"With Vanished and A Dangerous Woman, Ms. Morris established herself as a credible heir to Carson McCullers . . . a wise, unsentimental portraitist of the lonely, the damned, the desperate and the incomplete."
