The Vanishing Act of Esme Lennox

Maggie O’Farrell’s The Vanishing Act of Esme Lennox begins when Iris discovers that her grandmother has a sister nobody ever mentioned. Esme has spent more than sixty years in a psychiatric institution, committed as a teenager and quietly erased from her family’s history.

What moved me most was the gradual recovery of the girl beneath the patient record. Esme was spirited, unconventional and unwilling to behave as women were expected to, while the memories of her sister Kitty reveal the betrayal and shame that helped imprison her. Iris initially sees Esme as an unwanted responsibility, but their growing connection forces her to question everything she believes about her own family.

Haunting, compassionate and quietly furious, this is a powerful novel about women punished for disobedience and the secrets families preserve by sacrificing one of their own. Its final revelations make Esme’s stolen life feel even more devastating.