From the highly praised author ofSpilling Clarence, a luminous novel about the joy of family and the perils of loving.

The Woodrow family is going to the circus to celebrate Greta's seventh birthday. When five-year-old brother James eagerly volunteers to join the magic act, his parents watch with pride as he climbs onto the stage alongside the clown. The trick is spectacular and applause rings through the crowd as James disappears--vanishing before their very eyes. The trouble is, James really did disappear . . . into thin air.

In the aftermath of James's disappearance, with the police investigation providing no clues, the laws of the universe come into question. His mother becomes lost in her dreams and his father becomes obsessed with the clown, while his big sister Greta sets out to figure out what happened.

A novel peppered with dreams, premonitions, and possible realities,The Disapparation of Jamesis a work of enormous sensitivity, tenderness, and wit.