One August afternoon, two sisters—Sophia, eight, and Alyona, eleven—go missing from a beach on the far-flung Kamchatka Peninsula in northeastern Russia. Taking us through the year that follows, this National Book Award finalist enters the lives of women and girls in this tightly knit community who are connected by the crime: a witness, a neighbor, a detective, and a mother. The mystery unfolds amid expanses of tundra, soaring volcanoes, dense forests, and the glassy seas that border Japan and Alaska—a region as complex as it is alluring, where social and ethnic tensions have long simmered, and where outsiders are often the first to be accused.
"A knockout novel that combines literary heft with a propulsive plot…. Phillips imagines a cold, desolate climate inhabited by characters who exude warmth and strength…. Dazzlingly original." —Library Journal (starred review)