The Vanishing

Most mothers and sons don’t bond over searching for clues in missing persons cases. But in Scott Heim’s chilling new novel We Disappear (out February 26), that’s what it takes to bring together lonely, disparate souls Donna, a recovering alcoholic with terminal cancer, and her grown son Scott, a gay, crystal meth addict.

Heim, who wrote 1995’s Mysterious Skin, crafts a creepy, compelling tale about Donna’s own childhood kidnapping and her sudden desire to remember more when a boy near her Kansas town disappears. But the novel works best as a moving exploration into the strained mother-son relationship — and Scott’s realization that their time is limited: “I wanted to cook for her…extravagant 20-ingredient recipes we’d always planned to try but hadn’t…. I wanted to pose for pictures, just my mother and I.”

Scott’s feeling of helplessness is made all the more heartbreaking by his consuming addiction: “My eyes were bloodshot and swollen. I felt too tired to shave and the toothbrush proved too severe for my bleeding, meth-softened gums.” Those passages may be tough to stomach, but Heim’s knack for detail and spot-on observations about family make We Disappear a rewarding read.

We Disappear, published by Harper Perennial, is available February 26.

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