There is another disappearance in the book, but it gets second billing by comparison. I’m so glad you felt that way as you read. Amazingly, this structure serves to make the reader even more concerned for the well-being of the missing girls. Everything else–the plot, the characters, the structure–developed there.ĭisappearing Earth begins with the kidnapping of two young sisters, but then you veer off, introducing readers to characters who are more or less at the periphery of the kidnapping event. How much of your story emerged from the setting (as opposed to what you knew about the story you would write before you arrived in Kamchatka)?Īll of it! The setting was the only part of the book that I’d decided on before I went. And if I was picking any setting, then why not Kamchatka, the most beautiful and interesting place in the world? It was a way to scratch two intellectual itches at once. Setting a work of fiction in Russia seemed to be ideal–that way, I could move to the country and keep learning the language while I wrote. Growing up, I both dreamed of being a novelist and had an abiding interest in the Russian language.

I went there in 2011 with the support of a Fulbright grant to research this book. How/why did you find yourself living there? That means that for most of the 20th century, no foreigners were permitted to go there, and even Russians needed special government permission to visit. Kamchatka is a particularly interesting region to me as a foreigner because it was a closed military territory during the Soviet Union. If you can picture in your mind’s eye how the tail of Alaska swings out into the Bering Sea, then you can follow that swoop into Kamchatka, just on the other side of the water. Kamchatka is an enormous, gorgeous volcanic peninsula hanging off Russia’s Pacific coast. Please describe the Kamchatka peninsula, the setting for your novel Disappearing Earth. We were thrilled to be able to sit down with its author, Julia Phillips, to discuss how her story grew out of its setting, the impact of letting events unfold organically, and so much more. Disappearing Earth, which the NY Times called “nearly flawless” and People magazine deemed “thrilling” is a National Book Award finalist and an international bestseller.

Julia phillips book