Absence

Edgy, insightful and brilliantly evoked, this compelling novel is impossible to put down. Four sisters meet for a holiday on the spectacularly beautiful Cinque Terre coast of Italy. One of the sisters goes missing. Under the stress, the hidden emotional and sexual rivalries between the others are laid bare. For the youngest, the disappearance of her sister is a profound threat. This is the person with whom she has had the truest bond since the collapse of the family twenty years ago. Only the absent sister knows about the man she loves and to whom she cannot turn during this crisis; he has a partner and child. Is the disappearance accidental or intentional? Have the sisters shockingly misunderstood one of their own? How radically will the missing sister's fate alter their lives? Husbands and lovers, future hopes and the family's past all come under intense scrutiny in the vortex of events.

Born in New Zealand, Joanna King worked for television, writing documentaries and drama. She subsequently moved to Istanbul and now Vienna, where she works as a journalist.