'Oh, she'll turn up all right. Somewhere or other. Trouble is, we won't know where to look.'

Slowly, almost imperceptibly, Anna Durrant's acquaintances realize that Anna has gone missing. Normally so reliable, so helpful, she has neglected what duties remain to her after the death of her mother and taken flight.

Lawrence Halliday, the family doctor, trapped in a trying marriage to the predatory Vickie, is the first to notice Anna's disappearance. Mrs Marsh, a critical friend of Anna's mother, had hoped that her arrogant son Nick might take an interest in Anna, but he is seeking greater sophistication and worldliness. And as for Anna herself, she has not so much disappeared as ceased to exist as the woman they all thought they knew.

Slowly, almost imperceptibly, Anna Durrant's acquaintances realize that Anna has gone missing. Normally so reliable, so helpful, she has neglected what duties remain to her after the death of her mother and taken flight.

About the Author
Anita Brookner was born in south London in 1928, the daughter of a Polish immigrant family. She trained as an art historian, and after holding a post as a professor at Cambridge University and spending several years in Paris, she worked at the Courtauld Institute of Art until her retirement in 1988. She published her first novel, A Start in Life, in 1981 and her twenty-fourth, Strangers, in 2009. In 1984, she won the Booker Prize for her novel Hotel du Lac. As well as fiction, Anita Brookner published a number of volumes of art criticism. She was appointed a Commander of the Order of the British Empire in 1990. She died in 2016 at the age of 87.

Reviews
A writer of bewitching readability * The Times *
What makes this book gripping . . . is its truthfulness. It is a sort of detective story after all, with Brookner as the sleuth . . . applying her own devastating insight. * Sunday Times *
What a humorous and humane as well as accomplished artist she is. * London Review of Books *
Classic Brookner * The Times *



Book Information
ISBN 9780241979419
Author Anita Brookner
Format Paperback
Page Count 224
Imprint Penguin Books Ltd
Publisher Penguin Books Ltd
Weight(grams) 159g
Dimensions(mm) 198mm * 129mm * 14mm