The Missing Word
Based on a true story, an urgently told psychological thriller and the fierce portrait of a woman in all her frailty and courage Irina's life with her husband and her twin daughters is orderly. An Italian living in Switzerland, she works as a lawyer. One day, something breaks. The marriage ends without apparent trauma, but on a weekend seemingly like any other, the girls' father takes Alessia and Livia away with him. They disappear. A few days later the man takes his own life. Of the girls, there is no trace. Concita De Gregorio takes the unadorned, terrible facts of this true story and embodies the protagonist's voice. In a narrative that is fast and urgent, she unravels these traumatic events to tell the story of a mother bereft of her children - a state for which there is no word. The Missing Word delves deep into Irina's thoughts and memories as she grasps at the shreds of truth and, piece by piece, stitches her life back together.
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I received a free digital ARC from the publisher via Netgalley in exchange for an honest and unbiased review.
While I appreciate the subject matter of this book, it just wasn't the book for me.
The writing style was unnatural and confusing. It took me until halfway through the book to realize that the same person was narrating each chapter, and quite often there was no explanation regarding who the narrator was addressing, new names just appeared out of nowhere.
Along with that, the narrator would mention the persons name in every other sentence, which was grating and ruined the flow. (This is noticeable right off the bat with “Nonna”).
Honestly I found myself skimming this book because, while it is brief, there is no resolution in any way, even emotionally. I wanted to get to the end to see what the resolution was but I found myself disappointed. Honestly the entire book felt like the first chapter of a mystery novel.
This isn't something I would recommend.
