We Disappear

It's not out in bookstores until next month, but I need to talk about it now.

Scott Heim, author of Mysterious Skin, has a new novel on the way -- We Disappear. While it falls outside the traditional mystery genre, there is so much here to like and the mystery, a case of recovered memory and its consequences, is a brilliant piece of writing.

When a drug-addicted son returns home to care for his cancer-ridden mother, a body turns up in a nearby field, bringing with it a flood of memories. It sends the pair in search of the couple who kidnapped the mother years earlier. But is the mother telling the truth. As she retells her story, facts vary and those in her life begin to doubt her state of mind. Then ... it gets really freaky.

As always, Heim writes from the heart and, as his two protagonists crawl painfully toward the redemption that knowledge can bring, his well-honed language etches a portrait of doubt and despair.

Heim's earlier novel Mysterious Skin became the basis for the award-winning 2005 movie, a film that stays with you.

And speaking of movies, Heim has made his own: a trailer for We Disappear. It evokes the sense of loss and melancholy of the book while giving nothing away plotwise. Check it out at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u8Xl3TKx7mw