This is such a short book but it packs a punch. It is based on a true story. The writing is beautiful and is a collection of letters.

Words have the ability to capture reality, to describe a situation as it happened. As a child, I used to wonder what if authors already tried all combinations of words and sentences to write books. Would there be a day when all those combinations are tried and we no longer have the ability to describe them? But language, as happens, is fluid. Some languages disappeared over time with their users (languages did go extinct), while some languages obtain new lexicons over time (see how we normalise the word “selfie” to describe a situation in which a person taking picture of oneself) or similar lexicons which obtain new meanings (the words “install” and “application” now have heavy usages in relations to information technology). Yet not all situations in life have words to describe them. One of which is the grieving of a mother who loses her children due to unforeseen circumstances.

The Missing Word by Concita De Gregorio is one such novella that is able to capture intense emotions in only 131 pages. It follows the life of Irina Lucidi, whose twin daughters, Alessia and Livia, disappeared without any trace following her divorce from the twin’s father, Mathias Schepp. Mathias picked up his daughters to spend a weekend with them, and later along with the twins left their home in Switzerland for a holiday in Corsica, France. The body of Mathias was later found in Italy, without his daughters, where the authorities presumed him of committing suicide.

The fate of Alessia and Livia remained unknown since 30 January 2011, about which Irina’s grieving became the dominant subject of the story. Each chapter could consist of different forms. Sometimes they are letters, either from Irina or from people who corresponded with her. Sometimes they also consist of first-person narrative from Irina’s point of view. They establish facts, rationalising Irina’s grief which found no outlets. Yet the grieving remains, there is no lexicon to describe the situation in which a mother lost her daughters in Italian, German, and other languages that she spoke.

Up until the last page of the story, it took me a while to digest and establish that the story is based on a real story taking place in Switzerland. Following the disappearance of her daughters, Irina founded an organisation called Missing Children Switzerland, which is still running up until now. I find this story a moving tale of a mother losing her children (and by extension, of people who couldn’t get any closure from their grieving for family members whose fates are uncertain). It’s also a story about recovering from a traumatic experience, to look at it in hindsight as a way to regain one’s life purpose, instead of seeing oneself as a victim of circumstances.

A truly sad story with the most beautiful title which is explained. By the end. The book is a translation which may have been the reason I sometimes felt a little lost when reading it but it was one I hated to put down.

“The only thing that's more painful than not having your loved ones near you is not knowing where your loved ones are. Not even having their bodies so that you can imagine them walking somewhere else.” –The Missing Word

The Missing Word is a heart-aching read. A tribute to all mothers out there who in their silence still weeping for their missing child and hoping for the day when they got to see them and hold them in their arms once again.

It broke me reading about Irina when she poured out all her heart and tell her story. All the backlash and criticism she receives. In a way, the world expects that a woman should close her heart and for all, continue to grieve and not deserved happiness of all sorts. Our community also condemn that if a mother is working and unable to take care of her child due to work, her love for them is less.
She is trying so much to survive, to soothe her heart and trying to be loved again. Why can't we just be supportive and understanding?

There are all sorts of things she faces in trying to find her children in the county that's not her own, with little assistance. I'm glad she found the bravery to tell the world her story. May her story be of help.

Thank you to NetGalley and Europa Editions for the eARC.

"It's incredible how much pain we can inflict, convinced we're acting for the best."

On Sunday, Irinas' estranged husband left in their car without warning and took their daughters with them, their teddies left forgotten and still on the beds.

On Thursday, he killed himself.

Those fateful five days contain the one answer Irina has been looking for ever since - where are her daughters? They haven't been seen since that car left their family home, and Irina has been left searching for something she can't even name.

"Nobody belongs to anyone, I believe. Anyone, if they wish, can belong to everybody."
There is a word for a wife without a husband, for a child without a mother, but there is one word missing - that is so painful that language may not be able to describe it - a Mother without a child.

This is not just a journey of unexplained and unresolved loss, but of the meanings of grief and recovery. Told through her inner most thoughts, lists, letters and memories, she doesn't tell us a story exactly but shows us a snapshot of her innermost thoughts and musings during a time of endless uncertainty and turmoil.

The short, concise chapters make this easy to fly through the pages, with deeply personal and emotive prose that still manages to create poetic, beauty imagery in so few pages. With an urgent, desperate pace throughout - we feel every horrifying and dreadful moment along with Irina as she struggles to move on with her identity stripped from her, her heart shattered and maybe worst of all - the endless unknown.

Atmospheric, deeply riveting and emotive - this hauntingly beautiful story will stay with me for some time.

3.5 rounded up

I requested a copy of this on a whim, not knowing a whole lot about the plot (but that Europa Editions often publish books that intrigue/appeal to me!) - and as other reviewers have said, if I had known exactly what the book was about I might've been a bit more leery of it. Concita De Gregorio has written a book which has been described as being In Cold Blood-esque, taking a real-life crime and presenting it in a form where (to me, anyway -- I did try to corroborate this through articles online but there is very little in English about the crime, so apologies if this is incorrect) it is unclear how much of the narrative is based on fact and what may be slightly embellished or fictionalised.

The crime is so heinous as to be almost unimaginable: a father, recently separated from his wife, has his daughters for the weekend as per their agreement. During this time he disappears, travelling abroad where he ultimately ends his own life. Except that he takes their two six year-old daughters with him, who have not been seen or heard from since. His ex receives a letter from him shortly after saying she will never see him again. The book told from her perspective, through a combination of letters to those close to her or involved in investigating the case as well as lists and more biographical chapters about their relationship.

I found this to be a moving portrait of a mother who has lost her children - there is actually even a segment on the fact that many languages don't have a specific word for this situation, like we have words such as orphan, widow etc. - and a well-handled insight into her psyche. The insight into Swiss society was illuminating, too (the mother was accused of driving her husband to the crime). I'm curious as to whether everything in the book was entirely factual, but I guess it ultimately doesn't really matter as this was a compelling read regardless, and one which will linger in my mind for some time.

This book is based on the true story of the disappearance of Alessia and Livia Schepp in Lausanne , Switzerland in January 2011 and in it the author tells the tale from the perspective of the lawyer mother whose ex husband collects the children from her home one weekend never to return them to her care. His body is found and to date there is no trace of what happened to the girls.

The author imagines the thoughts and feelings of the mother told in the form of letters and other writings. Unfortunately I think that this fragmentary narrative diminishes the strength of the plot and detracts from the heavy subject matter.. I found detecting the authors intention very confusing..At times it read as an essay or treatise on what is love, its nature and complexity, at others a story about missing people, the word missing and what it means to miss someone. I feel like I would have enjoyed these themes had they not been shoehorned into an attempt to build a novel around a true story, but as part of an original plot by De Gregorio.

The book also contains a whole chapter of musings around dictionary definitions and Greek Mythology which could have been omitted as it does not add anything to the book. All In all I would read from this author again while not being a fan of this book. I would like to thank the publishers Europa Editions for the chance to receive an advance copy in exchange for an honest review.

A heart wrenching story a novel based on a true story.A couple divorcing the father picks up their daughters for normal visitation,none of them are ever seen again the father commits suicide and the girls are presumed dead.Horror heartbreak there mother must cope continue to live work somehow survive.So well written so painful a story I will not forget.#netgalley #europaeditions

Wow, what a way to pack so many emotions and pain into such few words.

The Missing Word is based on a true story and focuses on Irina, a mother of twin daughters. After seeing no way through with her relationship, they separate, leaving them to split custody of their two children. Everything seems to be going well and Irina is adjusting to her new life. And then Mathias kills himself and her daughters vanish. She never sees them again, doesn’t know what happened to them, if they’re dead or alive.

It was written beautifully. You could feel the sadness, the grief seeping through the pages. Even though the subject was very heavy, I still admired the writing and the way the author stitched words together to create something so powerful.

I liked the way it was written — through letters and small chapters delving into the desperation and grief Irina felt not knowing what happened to her children. There wasn’t much in the way of the plot (however, I think that was the point as it’s chronicling Irina’s feelings over time). But it meant I struggled to follow and did not know where I was up to. I started to lose interest towards the end. However, this was well worth the read and gave me a minuscule insight into how it feels to lose a child and all the emotions that come with that. Thank you to Netgalley, the author and publisher, for a chance to read and review this book.

While I appreciate the subject matter of this book, it just wasn't the book for me.

The writing style was unnatural and confusing. It took me until halfway through the book to realize that the same person was narrating each chapter, and quite often there was no explanation regarding who the narrator was addressing, new names just appeared out of nowhere.

Along with that, the narrator would mention the persons name in every other sentence, which was grating and ruined the flow. (This is noticeable right off the bat with "Nonna").

Honestly I found myself skimming this book because, while it is brief, there is no resolution in any way, even emotionally. I wanted to get to the end to see what the resolution was but I found myself disappointed. Honestly the entire book felt like the first chapter of a mystery novel.

This isn't something I would recommend.

This book is a translation from the original Italian and is based upon a heart-breaking true story of Irina whose ex-husband disappeared with their 6 year old twin daughters. Days after taking them, he took his own life and there was no sign of the girls and Irina is still searching.

The book takes the form of letters and meditations from Irina and we see how she has dealt with the loss of her daughters. How closely the author has stuck to the original writings is not known, but the Irina in the book is not some hysterical woman, she is rational and clear in her thoughts and in the demands she makes of those who she believes failed her when the girls first disappeared. She is a woman wronged, not only by her ex-husband but also by the authorities that should have been investigating the adduction. Instead, because she was an Italian woman in Switzerland, she was treated almost with disdain. It is to these people that she clearly sets out the wrongs that they have done her and her requests.

In her writings, she describes how she lives with her grief, how she keeps her daughters alive in her thoughts and it is powerful and so heart-breaking because this is a true story and Irina is still searching for her daughters.

The title of the book is also relevant because as Irina writes, there is no word for a parent who has lost a child. There are words for those who lose husbands, wives; words for children who lose parents but not for parents who lose a child and this sense of being invisible is also explored.

A book that stays with you and makes you pray that Irina does find resolution. Thank you Netgalley and Europa Edition for allowing me to read this.

This was a page turner, filled with many eloquent and elegant expressions, which stand in sharp contrast to the horrors that Irina has faced. I was shocked to learn that this was based on a true story. I could feel Irina's quiet but strong desperation in finding out what happened to her girls, and it's painful to realise that the investigation into this case might have been conducted in a rather slipshod way because of racism and sexism — Irina is an Italian woman, which is ostensibly a formula for discrimination in Switzerland, where the case was handled. The stereotypes Europeans have towards each other was a new thing I learned through this book.

I can only hope that the good work she is doing and the publishing of her story for the world to see can provide her some sort of comfort and strength.

This is one of those books where it may be better not to know exactly what it is about, because the subject matter is so horrible that you probably wouldn’t pick it up. I am very glad I did though, because it is a wise, respectful exploration of grief in a very clear and accessible way. I don’t recall a book of a mere 120 pages having such an emotional impact on me.

It tells the true story of Irina Lucidi, whose two 6-year old daughters were taken away by her husband and presumably killed in 2011. He left her a note saying only that they didn’t suffer and that she would never see them again. Apparently the case is well-known in Italy, but I had never heard of it.

The book consists of letters and other writings of the mother. I am not sure how closely Concita de Gregorio has stuck to the original writings, but what we read is of an extremely clear, lucid and logical prose, which I found very convincing and is for me the strongest point of the novel. Irina is clearly a very intelligent and rational woman and it is quite incredible how she has managed to deal with her loss.

She clearly has some scores to settle as well, in this case with the Swiss police and also with her German-speaking family in law, both of whom she has felt discriminated by for being Italian and for being a woman, whereas her ex-husband is Swiss and German speaking. The 'innocent' stereotyping of Southern-Europeans by Northern-Europeans (they are dumb, they are lazy and unproductive, they make a mess and cannot organise) is not only an interesting and underestimated theme, but also – I find – a real problem in an integrating Europe.

Rounding up to three stars

I'm not sure how I feel about this book.
It was so short I didn't get any real idea of the character.
The circumstances of the marriage and twins disappearance unfold nicely,but at the end I'm left wanting more.
A resolution.
I expect that's the idea. .