Our April book club pick for Now Read This, the PBS NewsHour's book club with The New York Times, is Julia Phillips' "Disappearing Earth," a novel about a community's reckoning with the sudden disappearance of two young girls.
Set on Russia's Kamchatka Peninsula, a region where social and ethnic tensions have long shaped the lives of the residents there, Phillips' novel follows a cast of characters who are connected by the crime.
The mysterious disappearance of the Golosovsky sisters one summer day ignites an onslaught of media attention that lays bare the broader tensions, particularly for women who feel their struggles have not been given equal notice.
In a book review for The New York Times, writer Ivy Pochoda praised Phillips for bringing "a cartographer's precision and an ethnographer's clarity" to her descriptions of Kamchatka, as well as weaving together stories of women who are "are fragmented personally, culturally and emotionally not only by the crime that jump-starts the novel, but by place, identity and the people who try, and often fail, to understand them."
Phillips spent time in Kamchatka on a Fulbright scholarship in 2011, and studied the Russian language for years.
"Disappearing Earth" was named one of The New York Times' 10 Best Books of the Year and as a finalist for the National Book Award, the National Book Critics Circle John Leonard Prize and the Center for Fiction First Novel Prize.
Phillips will join us at the end of the month to answer your questions about "Disappearing Earth." We hope you'll read along.
Sustain our coverage of culture, arts and literature.
The world of K-pop has fresh new faces: the band 1VERSE with a debut album and lead single, “Shattered.” The…
The work of artist Ruth Asawa, who died in 2013, is back in the spotlight with a major traveling exhibition.…
“South Park” co-creator Trey Parker had the briefest of responses Thursday to anger from the White House over the season premiere…
Hogan, whose real name was Terry Bollea, was perhaps the biggest star in WWE’s long history. He was the main…
Heavy metal rocker Ozzy Osbourne died this week at 76, about five years after announcing he had Parkinson’s disease. Parkinson’s…
It’s been a successful few months for 40-year-old writer Branden Jacobs-Jenkins and his play, “Purpose,” which won both the Pulitzer…
The gloomy, demon-invoking lead singer of the pioneering band Black Sabbath who became the throaty, growling voice of heavy metal,…
With summer in full swing, you may be wondering what books to take along on vacation or enjoy right at…
Here are some ideas to help you choose your next read.
Costa Rican authorities report he drowned Sunday afternoon at Playa Cocles on the Caribbean coast.
Broadcast TV’s highest-rated late-night talk show, "The Late Show with Stephen Colbert," is being cancelled. Paramount called it a financial…
Congress is moving toward revoking a billion dollars in already approved funding for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, the entity…
The wholesome pop star's hits included “Pretty Little Baby” and “Who’s Sorry Now?” The latter would serve as an ironic…
