When You Disappeared by John Marrs

Publication date: 7^th September 2017

Book description:

When Catherine wakes up alone one morning, she thinks her husband has gone for a run before work. But Simon never makes it to the office. His running shoes are by the front door. Nothing is missing—except him.

Catherine knows Simon must be in trouble. He wouldn’t just leave her. He wouldn’t leave the children.

But Simon knows the truth—about why he left and what he’s done. He knows things about his marriage that it would kill Catherine to find out. The memories she holds onto are lies.

While Catherine faces a dark new reality at home, Simon’s halfway around the world, alive and thriving. He’s doing whatever it takes to stay one step ahead of the truth.

But he can’t hide forever, and when he reappears twenty-five years later, Catherine will finally learn who he is.

And wish she’d stayed in the dark.

Revised edition: Previously published as The Wronged Sons, this edition of When You Disappeared includes editorial revisions

My thoughts:

This is a tricky book to review, as it is well written with very well developed characters but I can’t really say that I enjoyed it due to the subject of the story.  For a husband to walk away from his family, leaving them with no clue as to whether he is dead or alive seems rather callous.  As a reader we know that he is alive and well but Catherine and the children can but imagine the worst case scenario when after days, weeks, months and then years pass they have no sign of him.

 

The years pass and we see Simon living a seemingly carefree life for the majority of the time, anything that happens that threatens his peace causes him to burn his bridges and walk away to start a new chapter of his life in a new place. His methods are definitely questionable as are his morals at some points and I found him to be a very self centred person. Catherine and the children slowly manage to rebuild a new life for themselves but it takes much longer for them to find peace.

 Even towards the end of the story when Simon eventually faces his demons – again for selfish reasons I felt – although I understood more about him, I still found him a very unlikeable character. His behaviour changed the lives of many people around him who he purported to love deeply, and even at the end of his story I still felt that he did not accept any responsibility for the pain he had caused. In his eyes, there was always someone else who had made him react the way he did.  Because of this, I would say that this is a compelling read which provoked a lot of feeling in me but to say that I enjoyed it would be a step too far.

I can imagine some reviewers marking this book down because of that, but the depth of the personalities of the characters I felt made this a good read.  Therefore I would give it a strong 4 stars.