Elsewhere

Schaitkin (Saint X) returns with the profound story of a remote mountain village defined by the routine disappearances of mothers. Vera, 16, helps her widower father run the town’s photoshop. As she and her peers traverse the thorny path of adolescence, they’re all too aware of the possible fate waiting for them that plagued their mothers, all of whom vanished when they were little girls for no clear or consistent reason (whenever a mother disappears, others assume it was due to her overprotectiveness, neglect, or some other parental sin). Then a stranger named Ruth visits from “elsewhere,” and her presence in town makes the residents both prideful and self-conscious about their lives. Before they force Ruth to leave, she plants a seed in young Vera’s mind: “You could leave this place.” Several years later, Vera becomes a mother, and Ruth’s words resonate with her as she becomes increasingly attached to her daughter and realizes she may be on the verge of disappearing. A surprising and poignant development later prompts her to reflect that “You do not get to keep what is sweetest to you; you only get to remember it from the vantage point of having lost it.” Schaitkin gives the goings-on great substance by digging into the complicated feelings brought on by motherhood and the judgments from others, all the while delineating the mothers’ utter joy, frustrations, and love for their children. This is a standout. (June)