THE FORBIDDEN TERRITORY OF A TERRIFYING WOMAN

Mothers the world over start vanishing without a trace.

Creative writing professor Ada Berger, 39, lives in Ann Arbor, Michigan, with her husband, history professor Danny, and the couple’s 6-year-old son, Gilles. Canadian-born Ada has never felt at home in the U.S., where “the general order is pure chaos,” and ever since she had Gilles, she's been unable to envision the future, which makes it hard “to be here, on the earth, in any form.” Not only is Ada surrounded by stories about social and ecological collapse—on NPR, in conversations with her friends—but two local mothers have recently disappeared from their houses in broad daylight, with no sign of foul play. Though Ada can’t put the missing women out of her head, Danny doesn’t take much notice—until he and Gilles wake up one morning to find Ada gone. The doors are all locked, and Ada’s phone, keys, and wallet are still in the kitchen. Danny calls the police, who arrive with a federal agent in tow; it seems the mysterious disappearances aren’t confined to the Rust Belt—or even the United States. Using a candid close-third-person narration that shifts between Ada and Danny, debut author Lynch offers a nuanced contemplation of marriage, motherhood, and the anxieties of modern life. While efforts to explain the missing-mother phenomenon feel convoluted and undercut the tale’s otherworldly appeal, Lynch writes evocatively and insightfully about the divine feminine, nature’s gravitational pull, and her characters’ struggles with alienation and fear.

At once visceral and ephemeral but lacking in catharsis.