Barnes & Noble Discover Great New WritersA love story set against the background of the Cambodian killing fields, Echlin’s novel is a Romeo and Juliet for our time. Sixteen-year-old Anne, raised by her widowed father, attends a proper young ladies’ school in Montreal. But Anne has a secret – she sneaks into blues clubs with her tutor, and one night, she meets Serey, a sexy Cambodian musician who plays the songs of his people as well as blues and rock. Serey was in Canada when the Cambodian government fell, and his father begged him not to come home. The sheltered girl and the accidental refugee fall passionately in love; between them “everything was animal sensation and music.” They play the role of a gorgeous, exotic couple until the borders reopen, and Serey’s yearning for home and his family pulls him away. Eleven years later, Anne flies to Phnom Penh to search for Serey in the chaos left by war and famine, following in the footsteps of the biblical heroine Ruth, who declared, “Your people shall be my people and your God, my God.” Her love is undaunted by the obstacles she faces – from a merciless government to a people so desperate and downtrodden they’ll do anything to survive. Powerfully and movingly written, The Disappeared is a tribute to a love of the purest and most sensual kind. “A slender book of remembering, The Disappeared is unforgettable.” — Sheri Holman, author of The Dress Lodger