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You've never read a Francisco X. Stork novel like this before! A missing girl, a determined reporter, and a young man on the brink combine for a powerful story of choices, suspense, and survival.
Four Months Ago
Sara Zapata's best friend disappeared, kidnapped by the web of criminals who terrorize Juarez.
Four Hours Ago
Sara received a death threat - and with it, a clue to the place where her friend is locked away.
Four Weeks Ago
Emiliano Zapata fell in love with Perla Rubi, who will never be his so long as he's poor.
Four Minutes Ago
Emiliano got the chance to make more money than he ever dreamed - just by joining the web.
In the next four days, Sara and Emiliano will each face impossible choices, between life and justice, friends and family, truth and love. But when the web closes in on Sara, only one path remains for the siblings: the way across the desert to the United States.
"Starred Review. A tense thriller elevated by Stork's nuanced writing and empathy for every character, including the villains - superb." - Kirkus
"Starred Review. A timely and touching novel that will surely engross fans of true crime stories. This title would be a welcome addition to young adult collections. Grades 8 and up." - School Library Journal
"Starred Review. Stork uses parallel story lines to flesh out the two protagonists and then slowly brings them together to a harrowing climax. Not only does this result in a riveting story, it also highlights the harsh complexity of young Mexicans' lives. Readers will find this thrilling as well as eye-opening." - Booklist
"Part thriller, part sociological study, the novel sheds light on poverty, corruption, and greed while bringing readers intimately close to the plight of those who illegally cross borders with the hope of a brighter future. " - Publishers Weekly
This information about Disappeared was first featured
in "The BookBrowse Review" - BookBrowse's membership magazine, and in our weekly "Publishing This Week" newsletter. Publication information is for the USA, and (unless stated otherwise) represents the first print edition. The reviews are necessarily limited to those that were available to us ahead of publication. If you are the publisher or author and feel that they do not properly reflect the range of media opinion now available, send us a message with the mainstream reviews that you would like to see added.
Any "Author Information" displayed below reflects the author's biography at the time this particular book was published.
Photo: Anna Stork
Francisco Xavier Arguelles was born in 1953 in Monterrey, Mexico. Ruth Arguelles, his mother, was a single mother from a middle class family in Tampico (a city on the Gulf of Mexico). The reason Francisco was born in Monterrey rather than in Tampico, where Ruth lived, is that her father did not want anyone to know that she was going to have a child out of wedlock. She was sent to Monterrey to live in a convent until the baby was born. The baby was supposed to be given up for adoption, but Ruth changed her mind. After a while, Grandfather Adalberto relented and mother and baby Francisco were allowed to come home.
Six years later Ruth married Charles Stork, a retired man more twenty years her senior. Charles Stork adopted Francisco and gave him his name. Charlie was a kind but strict ...
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