• Vanishing and Other Stories was shortlisted for the Governor General’s Literary Awards, longlisted for the Frank O’Connor International Short Story Award, and named one of Globe and Mail’s Best Books of the Year. The title story, “Vanishing,” won PRISM International’s 2005 Short Fiction Contest.

In Deborah Willis's Vanishing and Other Stories, secrets are both kept and unearthed, and lives are shaped by missing lovers, parents, and children. Readers will encounter a skinny, freckled ice-cream scooper named after Nina Simone; a French teacher who collects fiancés; and a fortune-telling mother who fails to predict the heartbreak of her own daughter. In the title story, a writer vanishes, leaving unfinished work and unanswerable questions. In another story, a girl who cannot forget a long-ago trauma faces the fact that her mother is losing her memory. After his wife leaves, an aging cowboy is seduced by a city girl. A doctor, mourning a loss, takes up a dangerous gambling habit and loses far more than he imagines possible.

With a remarkable economy of words, moments of dark humor, and wisdom and dexterity far beyond her years, Deborah Willis captures an incredible array of characters that will linger in the imagination, proving that nothing is ever truly forgotten.