Organiser Girl

ISBN 0755332229 (978-075-533222-9)

RRP $32.95 September 2006

Headline Paperback C (234×153mm)A significant departure for Maggie O’Farrell in terms of maturity and style, The Vanishing Act of Esme Lennox will be one of the unmissable publishing events of 2006. Ladies and gentlemen behold. It is most important to keep yourself very still. Even breathing can remind them that you are there, so only very short, very shallow breaths. Just enough to stay alive. Set between the 1930s, and the present, Maggie O’Farrell’s new novel is the story of Esme, a woman edited out of her family’s history, and of the secrets that come to light when, sixty years later, she is released from care, and a young woman, Iris, discovers the great aunt she never knew she had. The mystery that unfolds is the heartbreaking tale of two sisters in colonial India and 1930s Edinburgh—of the loneliness that binds them together and the rivalries that drive them apart, and lead one of them to a shocking betrayal.

I borrowed this book from the library because I have read all of Maggie O’Farrell’s other novels and I’ve loved every single one of them. This book lived up to my expectations of Maggie’s writing. The characters were believable, the plot drew me in. There were surprises around every corner. I found this book hard to put down.