Nothing Disappears
"Part thriller, part love story, part magic trick itself, Nothing Disappears is a beautiful, funny, moving novel about small-town life from every angle."
--Elizabeth McCracken, author of Thunderstruck & Other Stories
“Nothing Disappears is beautifully written and true. Along with Smith's eye for small details and ear for dialogue, he has an intuitive sense of the ineffable connections that exist between people. This is a persuasive and moving first novel.”
--Meg Wolitzer, author of The Interestings
At the age of fifteen, shattered by the death of his girlfriend Grace, Charles Bentchley flees his Connecticut home and finds refuge with the Magnificent Rudy, a magician who for the next seven years instructs Charles in the tricks and traumas of life on the road. But with Rudy's death, Charles returns home to confront his losses and his brother's role in them. In the pursuit of revenge Charles must come to grips not only with his brother's betrayal but with his own mistakes and guilt. Through imagination, and a little magic, he finds his way beyond loss and anger toward new love and redemption.