Disappearing Act

Maria Stepanova’s new novella centres around an author referred to only as “M.” M. has been living in the city B. since leaving her home country, which is currently waging war on a neighbouring state. She exists in B. in a state of limbo, wracked by shame and despair over the war. Cut off from her home and her language, she finds herself unable to write. All the solid points of reference in her life seem to have dissolved, and the future is written in the stars. More than anything, she wishes she could just disappear.

She sets off on a train trip to a nearby country, where she has been invited to make an appearance, but a turn of events leaves her stranded in an unfamiliar city. She has lost her phone and nobody knows where she is. Cut off from everything and everyone she knows, she feels a sense of freedom, that she can be whoever she wants. But she is constantly reeled in by memories, of childhood, of books she has read, films, tarot cards – the last remaining moorings in a world that is being washed away.

She stumbles across a group of circus performers who invite her to perform with them. For a brief moment, it seems as if M. can escape her life, her heritage, start over from scratch. Disappearing Act oscillates between reality and dream, between an oppressive present and a lost past, between life and literature.

»A disorienting piece of prose full of tricks and twists that open up individual paths to liberation.« SWR
 

»Maria Stepanova has undoubtedly opened a new chapter in the history of Russian prose. […] Everyone should read this novel.« Tomi Huttunen, Helsingin Sanomat (Finland)

»Those who have read Stepanova's debut novel, In Memory of Memory ... will recognize the same lush symbolism, flowing sentences, and spacious trains of thought in this new work. Stepanova's background as a poet is evident not only in the rhythm of the text but also in the swaying and dreamlike atmosphere of her prose … Many others have written similar observations about Russia, but Stepanova's way of turning the analysis of totalitarianism into a fairy-tale-like narrative makes the novel vibrate in a fascinating way, revealing deep cultural levels that realistic novels or traditional non-fiction cannot reach.« – Tommi Melender, Suomen Kuvalehti

»Stepanova is a master of the mirror, she is able to extract new tricks from even the well-worn form of autofiction.« Sonja Zekri, Süddeutsche Zeitung

»It’s worth reading this short novel multiple times. Only gradually do we realise that it is composed down to the last detail, beginning on the plane of language.« Sieglinde Geisel, Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung

»With [this novel], Maria Stepanova reveals herself as a true acrobat.« Cornelia Geißler, Frankfurter Rundschau

»[A] desperate, ironic, and dense story packed with ideas…« Gregor Dotzauer, DIE ZEIT

»With Disappearing Act, Maria Stepanova has opened a new epoch in Russian literature.« Uli Hufen, WDR

»[A] desperate, ironic, and dense story, jam-packed with ideas.« Gregor Dotzauer, DIE ZEIT

»Stepanova depicts her alter ego’s attempt to flee her identity in a highly reflexive fashion.« Jörg Plath, Deutschlandfunk Kultur

»The Russian language, my mother tongue, has devolved into a symbol for being frozen in an imaginary past. For lies. For nostalgia. For aggression. Maria Stepanova’s entire oeuvre has always been a stoic effort to resist this.« Sasha Marianna Salzmann

»Maria Stepanova has written an extremely dense text in prose that is reflexive and rich in associations, with subtle allusions and literary references, dream-like and realistic at the same time.« Ulrich Rüdenauer, Der Tagesspiegel

»Stepanova’s companionable prose balances high seriousness with self-ironizing deadpan humour. Without pretension, she erects her house of memory in the neighbourhood of Marcel Proust, Vladimir Nabokov and Sebald.« Rachel Polonsky, TLS