The Art of Vanishing

“Kutsukake renders a lifelike picture of 1970s Japan while dissecting, with Austenian precision, the fraught social relations among its people. . . . Perhaps the most intriguing thing about The Art of Vanishing is that it is a beautifully mimetic novel about the limits of mimesis.” —The Literary Review of Canada

“Powerful. . . . The Art of Vanishing is a delicate book, crisply and lightly written with a retrospective point of a view [that] creates an escalating tension in the reader. . . . A potent reminder of the often unacknowledged power of art, especially as a catalyst in the search for identity and self-determination.” —Toronto Star

“The Art of Vanishing is a fascinating glimpse into the intersection of art, class, and the complexity of adult friendship. Through intricately clever prose, Lynne Kutsukake reveals resounding universal truths about creativity and humanity. The young characters at the centre of this story feel authentic and unique yet relatable, even from the other side of the globe. I was absolutely drawn to their evolving relationships and challenges, and couldn’t put this book down.” —Waubgeshig Rice, author of Moon of the Turning Leaves

“Lynne Kutsukake’s spell-casting powers are fully evident in this intricate and existentially thrilling novel about art and a fraught female friendship that draws readers into the vital flux of 1970s Tokyo. I am such a fan of Kutsukake’s work. Her ability to intimately express the discomfort and heat of her characters’ emotions—their love, dependency and rivalry—left me in awe.” —Kyo Maclear, author of Unearthing

“A beautiful examination of the power of friendship and creative expression in the search for identity and belonging.” —Nazanine Hozar, author of Aria

“The Art of Vanishing is an exquisite and stirring novel about the bold desire of two young women to render their perspectives visible through art. Brimming with emotional depth and subtle observations on female friendship, class divisions, and art-making as both a transformative and destructive act, this book is a triumph.” —Michelle Min Sterling, author of Camp Zero

“Luminous and riveting, The Art of Vanishing holds a mirror to our universal struggle to see and be seen. Lynne Kutsukake’s spare and elegant prose takes the reader to Japan in the 1970s and explores the friendship between two young artists who come from very different backgrounds—and asks what it means to want to belong. The characters and scenes within these pages will stay with you long after you’ve finished reading.” —Michelle Porter, author of A Grandmother Begins the Story

“A haunting, exquisitely nuanced exploration of the beauty and the cruelty of a flawed friendship. . . . I loved this elegant novel.” —Anita Rau Badami, author of Tell It To the Trees

“There was a dark underbelly to the sparkling success story that was Japan in the late 1970s and 1980s, as affluence undermined the values of many young people, making them vulnerable to charlatans and worse. Set during those ‘boom years’, Lynne Kutsukake’s suspense-filled second novel, The Art of Vanishing, offers a glimpse of the corrosive, sometimes fatal legacy left by the smug materialism of that time by juxtaposing two friends, the beautiful Sayako, a rich girl and a would-be artist, and Akemi, a girl from a poor fishing village who must learn to vanish to survive.” —Ted Goossen, literary translator, professor emeritus at York University, and co-editor of Monkey: New Writing from Japan