The Vanishing of Katharina Linden OR, Why I Didn't Get to Bed at a Reasonable Hour Last Night

It isn’t ten-year-old Pia’s fault that her grandmother dies in a freak accident. But tell that to the citizens of Pia’s little German hometown of Bad Münstereifel, or to the classmates who shun her. The only one who still wants to be her friend is StinkStefan, the most unpopular child in school.

But then something else captures the community’s attention: the vanishing of Katharina Linden. Katharina was last seen on a float in a parade, dressed as Snow White. Then, like a character in a Grimm’s fairy tale, she disappears. But, this being real life, she doesn’t return.

Pia and Stefan suspect that Katharina has been spirited away by the supernatural. Their investigation is inspired by the instructive—and cautionary—local legends told to them by their elderly friend Herr Schiller, tales such as that of Unshockable Hans, visited by witches in the form of cats, or of the knight whose son is doomed to hunt forever.

Then another girl disappears, and Pia is plunged into a new and unnerving place, one far away from fairy tales—and perilously close to adulthood.

I must say, mad props to Helen Grant and/or the Delacorte Press for the compelling title and artwork, since I picked this book up randomly from the New Book section at Martin Library. (Props to Martin Library for the new book section right near the main desk; it's the literary equivalent of the candy bars at the grocery store checkout.) 

I understand that this book was marketed as YA in the UK, and as I was reading it (and being wowed) I was pondering whether it was a suitable recommendation for, say, Dilesha, age 12 going on 30. Given that I already recommended The Hunger Games to her, which is far more graphic and disturbing, I'm thinking it shouldn't be an issue.

I also recommended it to Emily on account of it's thematic similarities (scary woods, foreign setting, children mysteriously disappearing) to Tana French's In the Woods, a book she had recommended to me. 

The books are about on par as far as readability and level of suspense, but if I had to choose, I'd  put The Vanishing of Katharina Linden ahead on account of the familiarity (and I dare say, likability) of it's narrator; i.e., I've never been a police detective with a traumatic past but I was once a ten-year-old girl with an (over)active imagination. 

After Pia herself, the second most important character is probably the town of Bad Münstereifel itself. I want to go back to Deutschland!  The book is set in 1998 (i.e. when there were still Deutschmarks) for, I would venture, two reasons: 1.)  life was way more suspenseful before everyone and his brother had a mobile phone and 2.)  the plot incorporates three generations of characters, and those who were adults during WWII needed to be old... but not dead. 

Read  it, particularly if you have been to/love Germany, or have German running in your veins, or have an interest in German history/folklore above and beyond a certain mustachioed psychopath. Well-written and suspenseful, with a climax that would do Stieg Larrson proud (you know, if he were alive). 

Check out Barry Forshaw's review from the Independent, or at the very least, follow the link to check out the cover art for the British edition. I usually bemoan the inferiority of American covers to their British counterparts, but in this particular instance, I think we got them beat. So props to one Roberto de Vicq de Cumptich for the cover design on the American edition. 

And here's an essay by the author, Helen Grant, about German folklore and her inspiration for the novel.