A review by frombethanysbookshelf
The Missing Word by Concita De Gregorio

5.0

"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 lef 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.