Disappearing Earth
{{short description|2019 novel by Julia Phillips}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=March 2025}}
{{Infobox book
| name = Disappearing Earth
| image = Disappearing Earth (Phillips novel).png
| alt =
| caption = First edition cover
| author = Julia Phillips
| audio_read_by = Ilyana Kadushin
| cover_artist =
| country = United States
| language = English
| subject = Fiction
| genre = Mystery, thriller
| set_in = Kamchatka Peninsula
| publisher = Knopf
| release_date = May 14, 2019
| media_type = Print (Hardcover)
| awards =
| isbn = 978-0-525-52041-2
| isbn_note =
| dewey = 813/.6
| congress = PS3616.H4585 D57 2019
}}
Disappearing Earth is the 2019 debut novel by Julia Phillips.{{cite web|url=https://www.npr.org/2019/05/21/725056496/kamchatka-is-a-rich-backdrop-for-mystery-in-disappearing-earth|publisher=NPR|title=Kamchatka Is A Rich Backdrop For Mystery In 'Disappearing Earth'|date=May 21, 2019|author=Patrick, Bethanne}}{{cite web|work=USA Today|url=https://www.usatoday.com/story/life/books/2019/05/14/julia-phillips-disappearing-earth-striking-portrait-russia/1154923001/|title=A kidnapping in rural Russia rocks the women in Julia Phillips' 'Disappearing Earth'|author=VanDenburgh, Barbara|date=May 14, 2019}}
Plot
Critical reception
According to Book Marks, the book received a "rave" consensus, based on twenty reviews: sixteen "rave" and four "positive".{{Cite web|url=https://bookmarks.reviews/reviews/disappearing-earth/|title=Disappearing Earth|website=Book Marks|language=en-US|access-date=2019-07-08}}{{Cite web |title=Disappearing Earth Reviews|url=https://booksinthemedia.thebookseller.com/reviews/disappearing-earth|access-date=11 July 2024 |website=Books in the Media|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211020045352/https://booksinthemedia.thebookseller.com/reviews/disappearing-earth|archive-date=20 Oct 2021}}
The New York Times Book Review described the book as a "superb debut...a novel in the form of overlapping short stories about the women who are affected both directly and indirectly by the kidnapping. The purpose of these stories is not to unite a community around a tragedy as a less daring and more conventional narrative would have it, but to expose the ways in which the women of Kamchatka 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."{{Cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2019/05/14/books/review/disappearing-earth-julia-phillips.html|title=A Debut Novel Set on the Brooding, Remote Kamchatka Peninsula|last=Pochoda|first=Ivy|date=2019-05-14|work=The New York Times|access-date=2019-07-08|language=en-US|issn=0362-4331}}
USA Today wrote, "It could be a frustrating book for readers who require propulsive plots and clean resolutions, as it offers neither. But Phillips is so skilled at conveying place and people, you can feel the chill of the shadow cast by Soviet-style apartment buildings, smell the blood soup, taste the burn of cheap vodka drunk too fast to numb the pain."
NPR said, "Disappearing Earth comes closer in spirit to great American literature than most of the fiction set within U.S. borders."
The book was named one of the top ten books of 2019 by The New York Times Book Review.{{cite news |title=The 10 Best Books of 2019 |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2019/11/22/books/review/best-books.html |accessdate=November 26, 2019 |work=The New York Times |date=November 22, 2019}}
Awards
| class="wikitable sortable"
! Year !! Award !! Category !! Result !! Ref. | |||
| rowspan=4 | 2019
| Center for Fiction First Novel Prize || — || {{sho}} || | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Goodreads Choice Awards | Mystery & Thriller | {{Nominated|Nominated—14th}} | |
| National Book Award | Fiction | {{sho|Finalist}} | |
| National Book Critics Circle Award | John Leonard Prize | {{sho|Finalist}} | |
| rowspan=2 | 2020
| Andrew Carnegie Medals for Excellence || Fiction || {{nom|Longlisted}} ||{{Cite web |title=Longlist {{!}} Andrew Carnegie Medals for Excellence |url=https://www.ala.org/carnegie-medals/longlist |access-date=2025-01-29 |website=www.ala.org |language=en}} | |||
| Young Lions Fiction Award | — | {{sho|Finalist}} |