The Van Apfel Girls Are Gone
Felicity McLeanSo begins Tikka Molloy's recounting of the summer of 1992 - the summer the Van Apfel sisters, Hannah, the beautiful Cordelia, & Ruth - disappear.
11 & 1/6 years old, Tikka is the precocious narrator of this fabulously endearing coming-of-age story, set in an eerie Australian river valley suburb with an unexplained stench. The Van Apfel girls vanish from the valley during the school's 'Showstopper' concert, held at the outdoor amphitheatre by the river. While the search for the sisters unites the small community on Sydney's urban fringe, the mystery of their disappearance remains unsolved forever.
Did they just run far away from their harsh, evangelical parents, or were they taken? While the search for the girls united the small community, the mystery of their disappearance was never solved, & Tikka & her older sister, Laura, have been haunted ever since by the loss of their friends & playmates.
Now, years later, Tikka has returned home to try to make sense of that strange moment in time.
Part mystery, part darkly comic coming-of-age story, The Van Apfel Girls Are Gone is a page-turning read--with a dark, shimmering absence at its heart.
Brilliantly observed, sharp, lively, funny & entirely endearing, this novel is part mystery, part coming-of-age story - & quintessentially Australian. Think The Virgin Suicides meets Jasper Jones meets Picnic at Hanging Rock.
Felicity McLean is an author & journalist. Her writing has appeared in major newspapers & magazines, & she has ghostwritten 6 books, most recently Body Lengths, co-written with Olympian Leisel Jones. She lives in Australia.