Skip to content Skip to footer

The Disappeared

Additional information

Author

Rebecca J. Sanford

Genre

Adult – Historical, Literary Fiction

Release Date

July 30, 2024

Publisher

Blackstone

Categories , , Tag Product ID: 20041

Description

Inspired by the real mothers and grandmothers who spoke out against Argentina’s military dictatorship, The Disappeared is an award-winning debut about identity, family secrets, and those who endured decades of hardship to expose the truth.

In 1976 Buenos Aires, Lorena Ledesma is a housewife with dangerous secrets living under Argentina’s rising military dictatorship. When she and her husband are torn from their home by the paramilitary in the middle of the night, their two-year-old son is left behind with Lorena’s mother, Esme. There’s never any record of the arrest. Desperate to locate Lorena, Esme joins an underground group of mothers who are investigating the disappearances of their own missing children. But when they make a devastating discovery–that several of their kidnapped daughters have given birth in prison–a new kind of pursuit begins: the search for their stolen grandchildren.

Nearly three decades later, thousands of miles away, American adoptee Rachel Sprague learns she has a biological brother from another country–somewhere she has never visited. But the truth goes far deeper than the results of a DNA test, and revealing her origins will expose painful family secrets that could put Rachel’s loved ones in jeopardy.

A heart-wrenching drama that spans thirty years, The Disappeared is inspired by the true stories of the mothers and grandmothers of the Plaza de Mayo, an extraordinary group of women who, for more than forty-five years, have been searching for children of the “disappeared”–those captured as dissidents during Argentina’s Dirty War.

About the Author

Photograph of author Rebecca J. Sanford

R

ebecca grew up in a small town in New York reading Beverly Cleary books and filling journal pages with stories. She enrolled at a lycée in southern France and earned a degree in French and writing from Loyola University in Maryland. Through the Graduate Program in International Affairs at the New School University in NYC, Rebecca conducted research for her master’s thesis with the Identity Archive of the Grandmothers of the Plaza de Mayo at the University of Buenos Aires in Argentina. This experience inspired her debut novel, The Disappeared.

Rebecca works as a human resources executive and serves as a board member and sponsor for various organizations supporting the professional and economic advancement of women. She is a member of the Women’s Fiction Writers Association, the Florida Writers Association, and the Center for Fiction. She lives in Florida with her family, where she continues to write stories.

More 2024 Literary & Historical Fiction Debuts