The Disappearing Act - Maria Stepanova behind shuttered windows and on

behind shuttered windows and on factory floors

When complications arise in Alina’s pregnancy and Laura becomes attached to her neighbour’s son

the Prix Goncourt

This collection illuminates the uniquely fascinating era between 1820 and 1950 in French poetry - a time in which diverse aesthetic ideas conflicted and converged as poetic forms evolved at an astonishing pace

he reveals his life story: his impoverished childhood

The Disappearing Act - Maria Stepanova behind shuttered windows and onThe writer known as M. is living in exile while her home country wages war on a neighbouring state. Wracked by shame and severed from her language, M. finds herself unable to write, unmoored in a present where the future feels unknowable. When she travels to a nearby country for an event, a twist of fate leaves her stranded in an unfamiliar city, phoneless and untraceable. Oscillating between reality and dream, written in rich, hypnotic prose, The