The Missing

The author of The Clearing (the finest American novel in a long, long time--Annie Proulx) now surpasses himself with a story whose range and cast of characters is broader still, with the fate of a stolen child looming throughout. After World War I, Sam Simoneaux returns to New Orleans determined to leave mayhem and destruction behind, and to start anew with his wife years after losing a son to illness. But when a little girl disappears from the department store where he works, he has no recourse but to join her musician parents on a Mississippi excursion steamboat, hoping to unearth clues somewhere along the river. Though ill-prepared for this rough trade in hamlets where neither civilization nor law is familiar, he enforces tolerable behavior on board and ventures ashore to piece together what happened to the girl--making a discovery that not only endangers everyone involved but also sheds new light on the murder of his own family decades before. Against this vivid evocation of a ragged frontier nation, a man fights to redeem himself, parents contend with horrific loss, and others consider kidnapping either another job or a dream come true. The suspense--and the web of violence linking Sam to complete strangers--is relentless, compelling, and moving, the finest demonstration yet of Gautreaux's understanding of landscape, history, and human travail and hope.

About the Author :
Tim Gautreaux is the author of two previous novels and two collections of stories. His work has appeared in "The Atlantic Monthly, ""GQ, ""Harper's Magazine," and "Zoetrop"e, as well as in volumes of the O. Henry and the Best American Short Story annuals. A professor emeritus in the creative writing program at Southeastern Louisiana University, he lives with his family in Hammond.

Review :
"That rare thing: a needful lesson that nourishes and delights." -Laurel Maury, "San Francisco Chronicle" ""The Missing" has the impact of a book twice its length. It's a dramatic, theatrical meditation on law and lawlessness, guilt and the hollowness of vengeance [with] all the power, doomed inevitability and spiritual profundity of Conrad's "Victory" and "Nostromo" or Faulkner's "Light in August."..The anticipation clutching your throat makes you race towards the novel's climax. Despite their wise and knowing humour, Gautreaux's novels seem created out of urgent moral duty, and the importance of reading "The Missing" is to learn that to live without hatred is our only true privilege." -Alan Warner, "The Guardian" (UK) "Remarkable...Mr. Gautreaux has given us a compelling adventure tale with a moral center." -Julia Reed, "The Wall Street Journal " "Moving and resonant...Gautreaux is an old-fashioned storyteller, a spinner of yarns with a moral...[He] has a mythic sense of plot, a keen ear for dialect and vivid powers of description." -Malena Watrous, "The New York Times Book Review " ""The Missing" is Gautreaux's masterpiece, his most powerful novel to date." -Susan Larson, New Orleans "Times-Picayune" "Gautreaux's lyrical prose fairly soars...Jazz flows through "The Missing" like another river. So too do nuance and ambiguity...[Gautreaux] has created a grand story with unconventional heft." -Fred Grimm, "The Miami Herald" "Continually engaging..."The Missing" carries us along as it branches and swells, as if inspired by the great river on which so much of this book takes place...If you've been complaining that nobody writes novels as they used to, this could be your book for the spring." -Ron Charles, "The Washington Post Book World" "An exceptional novel...Gautreaux again displays fluent prose, accomplished storytelling, and strong characterizations in this paean to the indefatigability of the human spirit." -Michele Praise for Tim Gautreaux's "The Missing": "An exceptional novel...Gautreaux again displays fluent prose, accomplished storytelling, and strong characterizations in this paean to the indefatigability of the human spirit." -Michele Leber, Booklist "Haunting and transient...a refreshingly candid voice, brimming with a lyrical intensity [and] raw beauty." -Publishers Weekly