WHAT DISAPPEARS

“In What Disappears, Barbara Quick spreads before the reader a banquet of secrets, jealousy, betrayal, genius, high fashion, loss, tragedy and poignant regrets peppered with fascinating historical details and cameo appearances by some of the most famous ballerinas, writers, and artists of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. A cinematic novel, which cuts between Russia and Paris, past and future, fear and desire, What Disappears has a rich plot filled with enough reversals, revelations, and unexpected twists to keep readers turning its pages long into the night.” –Mary Mackey, New York Times bestselling author of A Grand Passion “Gorgeously written and daring in scope of drama from the poverty and pogroms of Russia to the fraught, exquisite world of divine fashion and the Ballets Russes of Paris 1909, What Disappears is a book you will find hard to put down and impossible to forget.” –Stephanie Cowell, author of Claude & Camille: a novel of Monet and Marrying Mozart, American Book Award recipient “What Disappears is a tour de force. With a dancer's grace, agility and subtlety, Barbara Quick creates indelible scenes that unfold as her characters, both famous and fictional, discover the fragility of their deepest core values. (...) By the end of this masterful work, we can indeed understand that when our inner and outer selves reconcile, what disappears is in fact what remains.” –Gavin Larsen, author of Being a Ballerina: The Power and Perfection of a Dancing Life “Barbara Quick is at the height of her powers in her newest novel, an epic narrative of the ballet world, European history and high fashion. Her characters are so real—so vital—they seem to say, “Come toward us and see what's inside!” And we do, following them with fascination one by one. The plot crosses back and forth across continents and time to braid an intergenerational story with unflagging momentum and gripping emotional appeal. Like her 2007 novel Vivaldi's Virgins, What Disappears sings with musical complexity and vivid sensuality.” –Grace Cavalieri, Maryland Poet Laureate “In this well-researched and exquisite novel of artistic innovation during the first decades of the twentieth century, Barbara Quick deftly evokes a world rushing headlong into modernity. Through the eyes of two sensitive and artistic Russian sisters we experience the devastating pogroms of Russia and the dazzling Paris of the Ballets Russes, high fashion, and literature, meeting luminaries such as Ninjinski, Diaghilev, Paul Poiret, Colette, and others along the way. This vibrant novel of loss, ambition, and destiny will resonate long after you finish reading it.” –Mitchell Kaplan, award-winning author of Into the Unbounded Night and Rhapsody