Ways to Disappear by Idra Novey is an original debut novel about a Brazilian writer who one day takes a small suitcase, climbs into a tree and disappears. This sends her two grown children and her American translator on a quest to find her. They discover she had an online gambling debt, is being chased by a loan shark and might be in contact with her editor.

The writing is brilliant, I liked it better than I liked the characters or the story, which usually isn’t enough, but this time it almost is. Novey has written such a unique novel, from the perspective of being a translator herself, that I was willing to follow her just about anywhere. A worthwhile read.