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The Disappearing Act

By Maria Stepanova
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Brief Description
The writer known as M. is living in exile while her home country wages war on a neighbouring state. Wracked by shame and severed from her language, M. finds herself unable to write, unmoored in a present where the future feels unknowable. When she travels to... Read More
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A haunting novel on identity, exile and the fragile desire to disappear by Maria Stepanova, one of Russia's greatest living writers.Β 

Book Hero Magic formatted this description to make it easier to read. While it's new and still learning, it may not be perfect - your feedback is welcome! Description

The writer known as M. is living in exile while her home country wages war on a neighbouring state. Wracked by shame and severed from her language, M. finds herself unable to write, unmoored in a present where the future feels unknowable.

When she travels to a nearby country for an event, a twist of fate leaves her stranded in an unfamiliar city, phoneless and untraceable. In this rupture, she feels a flicker of liberationβ€”the possibility of starting overβ€”but memories of childhood, books, films, and tarot cards pull her back, the last fragments of a vanishing world.

Then she meets a troupe of circus performers who invite her to join them. For a moment, reinvention seems within reach. Oscillating between reality and dream, written in rich, hypnotic prose, The Disappearing Act is a haunting meditation on identity, language, and the fragile desire to disappear by Maria Stepanova, one of Russia's greatest living writers.

Book Details

INFORMATION

ISBN: 9781804272329

Publisher: Fitzcarraldo Editions

Format: Paperback / softback

Date Published: 26 February 2026

Country: United Kingdom

Imprint: Fitzcarraldo Editions

Contributors:

  • Translated by Sasha Dugdale

Audience: General / adult

DIMENSIONS

Width: 125.0mm

Height: 197.0mm

Weight: 250g

Pages: 136

Collections

Fiction Fiction in Translation General Fiction Literary Fiction Maria Stepanova

About the Author

Maria Stepanova is a poet, essayist, journalist and the author of ten poetry collections and three books of essays. In Memory of Memory won Russia's Bolshaya Kniga Award in 2018. Sasha Dugdale's English translation was awarded the Berman Literature Prize and was also shortlisted for the International Booker Prize, the Warwick Prize for Women in Translation and the James Tait Black Prize for Biography. She founded and was editor-in-chief of the online independent crowd-sourced journal Colta.ru. As a prominent critic of Putin's regime, she had to leave Russia and is now living in exile.

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