First published 1979
T.J. Waring has disappeared without explanation, leaving behind only questions and theories. His literary circle gathers to dissect the mystery of their missing friend. Each person offers a different version of Waring's character and motives. Some believe he staged his own disappearance to escape his failures as a writer. Others think he simply walked away from a life that no longer suited him. The narrator listens to these competing accounts while forming his own conclusions about what drives someone to abandon everything. As the conversations continue, the real subject becomes less about finding Waring and more about how people construct narratives to explain the inexplicable. The friends reveal as much about themselves as they do about the missing man.
Genres: fiction, literary-fiction, 20th-century, mystery, psychological-thriller, academic
Vibes: emotional, intimate, thought-provoking
Tropes: unreliable-narrator
Period: 20th-Century
Paperback · Fontana