The Disappearance

First published posthumously in 1987 during the post-glasnost rise of literary freedom, Disappearance is a work of earlier times. Originally begun in the 1950s, this novel of childhood moves back and forth between 1937 and 1942, two troubled years in Soviet history when the disappearances of family and friends during the Stalinist purges and the Second World War become regular occurrences in the life of a young man.

"The most sensitive and honest of officially published Soviet fiction writers." --John Updike

"Trifonov is certainly one of the best in the Soviet Union and arguably among the better writers anywhere." --Washington Post