Staff Picks Blog

I finished a book! I’ve recently gone through a rough period of trying to find a book that would hold my interest…after starting and not finishing 4 books, the 5th book was a winner! That book was The Vanishing of Katharina Linden by Helen Grant, and it’s a wonderful tale. Our narrator is Pia Kolvenbach, and she recounts the events that occurred when she was 10 years old, living in the small German town of Bad Münstereifel. There are strange goings-on here, most notably the sudden and complete disappearance of a classmate of Pia’s, and the stories that begin to come out about the town and the people in it only add to the mystery. At the same time, Pia finds herself in the role of school outcast (owing to a peculiar and unfortunate accident that befalls her grandmother), her only friends being another boy held in similar standing and a kindly old man who regales them with tall tales about the area. The world of her parents, and their adult problems, also crashes in at times, and all of this makes for a year of upheaval and adventure. A sort of modern fairytale of its own, with very likable characters and well-written dialogue, this book was endearing and hard to put down.