Cover for The Art of Vanishing

The Fine art of Vanishing

A Memoir of Wanderlust

Hardcover

List Price: 25.00*

* Individual shop prices may vary.

Other Editions of This Title:
Digital Audiobook (2/5/2018)

Clarification

A young adult female chafing at the confines of marriage confronts the high price of craving freedom and adventure in a memoir that "pushes literary boundaries" ( The Atlantic )

At twenty-five, every bit her wedding date approached, Laura Smith began to feel trapped. Not by her fiancé, who shared her appetite for take a chance, simply by the unsettling idea that it was hard to exist at once married and free.

Laura wanted her life to be different. She wanted her wedlock to exist unlike. And she constitute in the strangely captivating story of another restless immature woman adamant to live without constraints both an enticement and a challenge. Barbara Newhall Follett was a complimentary-spirited trailblazer who published her first novel at eleven, enlisted as a deck hand on a boat spring for the s Communist china seas at 15 and was i of the commencement women to hike the Appalachian trail. And so in December 1939, when she was not much older than Laura, she walked out of her flat on a tranquility tree-lined street in Brookline, leaving behind a fraying marriage, and vanished without a trace. Obsessed past her story, Laura gear up off to find out what had happened.

The Art of Vanishing is a riveting mystery and a piercing exploration of marriage and convention that asks deep and uncomfortable questions: Why practice we surrender on our childhood dreams? Is marriage a gold noose? Must we find ourselves in the same row houses with Pottery Barn lamps telling our kids to carry? Searingly honest and written with a raw intensity, information technology will challenge yous to rethink your almost intimate decisions and may just upend your life.

Praise For The Fine art of Vanishing: A Memoir of Wanderlust…

"Good and sensitive."– The New York Times Book Review "Told with real insight and remarkable honesty . . . [The Art of Vanishing] interweaves biographical portraiture that is urgently personal and memoir that is deepened past historical exploration. Smith pushes literary boundaries." –The Atlantic

"On the brink of her impending nuptials, Laura Smith finds herself enthralled by the disappearance of Barbara Newhall Follett, a trailblazing writer and charlatan who left behind an unhappy marriage and vanished without a trace in 1939. Grappling with what the future will hold for her, the nature of wedlock, and a yearning for some ephemeral idea of liberty, this cleverly-written memoir follows Smith every bit her restless musings twine with Follett's trail, two kindred spirits finding i another beyond the span of time." – Harper's Bazaar

"A captivating read for everyone who has e'er wondered what would happen if you could but beginning over." --HelloGiggles

‟The Art of Vanishing

 is captivating and ingenious—a biography, a memoir of a spousal relationship, and an exploration of a few timelessly vexing questions: Is it possible to forge a life that combines chance and stability? What office does fantasy play in our day-to-day? Where is the rest betwixt autonomy and intimacy? Laura Smith is a cute writer, a sharp critic, and a peachy storyteller. One time I started reading this book I could not put it down.ˮ
—Kate Bolick, author ofSpinster: Making a Life of One's Own

"A haunting and elegant meditation on restlessness, a fascinating literary mystery, and a bold exploration of marriage and wanderlust, this highly original and unsettling volume volition remain with you long after you cease it.ˮ —Katie Roiphe, writer ofUncommon Arrangements
"This is a book that comes from the most urgent and pure place: an obsession with an illusive person who y'all are sure volition solve all the mysteries in your own life. Laura follows the trail to produce a rare book that'south both intimate and broad, suspenseful and tranquility in all the best ways."
--Hanna Rosin, host of Invisibilia and author ofThe End of Men

"Seductive . . . a riviting journey mapping the road of two restless women and their search for fulfillment." --Publisher's Weekly

"A bravely introspective tale of wanderlust and lustful wandering." --Kirkus

Viking, 9780399563584, 272pp.

Publication Date: Feb 6, 2018

About the Author

Laura Smith's writing has appeared in The New York Times, Slate, and Mother Jones. She worked on The Art of Vanishing while on a fellowship at the Banff Arts Centre. She lives in Oakland, California.