The Vanishings

The George Garrett Fiction Prize: Judge's Choice, selected by Kaveh Akbar

Eight jeweled hauntings . . . the disappeared and disappearing, the once-longed-for, the self, the empty door . . . each story immerses you in an intimate, propulsive life that will lodge in your bones. Devastatingly comedic and heartbreaking, together, this collection offers an expansive portrait of South Indian life in today's 21st-century, global world—an unsettling ode to all that modern life takes from us, and brings to bear on, our heritages and human relationships.

Through the rich colors and sounds of vivid rural and urban South India—eight people, across class, gender, and generational barriers, set out alone in search of someone or something missing. When strange, perhaps supernatural, occurrences interrupt: an unlucky cloud; a magic fairness cream; a fortunetelling parrot, a chance meeting with a guru "godwoman"; a massive citywide power outage; a giant talking moon bird; national rumors of milk-drinking Ganesh idols; even objects in a house after a divorce—what price will each person pay for choosing to believe in them?