The Vanishing Act

A magical, mystical tale for fans of The Night Circus or The Snow Child. Written in the style of a traditional European folk story, The Vanishing Act is narrated by a young girl called Minou who lives on a bleak, isolated island. She is coming to terms with the sudden disappearance of her mother and as she tells her story, we find out more about the events leading up that fateful day.

The story begins with Minou and her father finding the body of a young boy and Minou becomes fascinated with him, telling him her stories of the island. There is a very small cast featured in this book, but they are all interesting characters. Minou and her father share their island with Priest, Boxman and a scarf-wearing dog called No Name. They are Minou's family and her relationships with them all are very interesting.

This is a story full of mystery about Minou's mother as we guess whether she was involved in an accident, or left the island by choice. A perfect, relatively short story to curl up with on a winter's evening...