What happens when the one person holding a family together mysteriously disappears?

How well do we really know anyone, especially those we love the most?

One day, Fran Albright heads toward the grocery store and keeps going till she reaches the tip of South America, leaving an empty hole in the lives of her family. Kay, a grad student studying archeology, mourns her mother's absence and tries to rally her reluctant family into action. Cal, a heroin addict living at home with a father he fears, is torn between guilt and rage when the mother he's always depended upon goes missing. Walter, a devoted husband but distant father, pays his wife's credit card bills, tracking her journey southward before heading north to Alaska.

Adding to the mystery of the mother's disappearance are the "gifts" she sends her children: The elated messages she leaves on Kay's landline, but never when she's at home to pick up; the strange photographs she sends Cal, who studies them like pieces of a puzzle he must solve--to save her and save himself. How each family member copes with the mother's disappearance and forges new relationships in her absence create the heart of this novel.

When Things Go Missing is a masterful exploration of loyalty, loss, and knotty, dysfunctional families, told through the viewpoints of Kay, Cal, and Walter. It reveals the subtle and dramatic ways addiction affects the bonds that hold a family together. This heartfelt meditation on family is wrapped up in a propulsive page-turner that you cannot help getting swept up in.

Deborah Brasket exquisitely captures minute moments of human interaction and emotion. Amid the chaos is welcome humor and recognizable nuances of family life.

--Dana Isaacson, Career Authors

When Things Go Missing is catnip for book club readers. Brasket is a gorgeous writer who explores complex family dynamics in a raw yet sympathetic way.

-- Dianne Emley, Los Angelos Times bestselling author