The Missing Word

De Gregorio effectively captures the anxiety and disorientation experienced by a woman during a traumatic crisis in this provocative and splintered English-language debut. The details are revealed in short fragmented chapters, which mirror the tortured psyche of lawyer Irina three years after her two daughters disappeared following their kidnapping by her husband, Mathias, who died by suicide. The reader is challenged to put together the pieces of the plot, which come slowly together like a puzzle. For example, the identity of the writer in an opening italicized chapter, addressed directly to Irina, is not initially revealed. This epistolary thread continues intermittently through the novel, becoming uncomfortably more intimate. Irina is introduced writing a letter to her grandmother and alluding to her grief. Later, she reimagines her romance and marriage to Mathias, who in hindsight feels like a stranger to her. Unanswered questions plague Irina, such as the reasoning behind Mathias’s loving death notice published by his mother. There’s a great deal of intrigue as Irina searches for answers and comfort—alternately from a therapist, a judge, the girls’ teacher, and a detective—which builds on an unsettling theme of horror churning beneath the surface. This will transfix readers. (July)