Find Me Gone

Belgian author Meuleman’s fascinating, multilayered debut shifts between countries and time periods. After the miscarriage of a much-wanted child, Hannah, a successful society columnist for a high-profile New York fashion magazine, is desperate to change her life. She leaves her husband, quits her job, and moves from Greenwich Village to Brooklyn’s Bushwick neighborhood. Her plan is to write a book about Agatha Christie, Barbara Newhall Follett, and Virginia Woolf: three writers who “fought their battles, swam against the current, and then disappeared one day.” Her research into why these women chose to walk away from their lives stirs up turbulent memories. It seems that her beloved authors are “dragging her back to places she needs to forget. All the way back to” Bachte-Maria-Leerne, the little Belgian town where she grew up. Meuleman skillfully reveals, bit by tiny nuanced bit, the story of Hannah and her best friend, Sophie, who likewise disappeared one day long ago in Bachte. This intelligently written psychological thriller provides much food for thought. Agent: Cecile Barendsma, Cecile B Literary. (Oct.)

Correction: An earlier version of this review misspelled the name of one of the characters as well as Viginia Woolf's last name. It also incorrectly stated the book was translated from the Flemish.