The Diver's Clothes Lie Empty (Hardcover) (ISBN-13: 9780062110916)

From the acclaimed author of Let the Northern Lights Erase Your Name and The Lovers comes a taut, spellbinding literary thriller that probes the essence and malleability of identity.

In Vendela Vida's taut and mesmerizing novel of ideas, a woman travels to Casablanca, Morocco, on mysterious business. While checking into her hotel, the woman is robbed of her wallet and passport--all of her money and identification. Though the police investigate, the woman senses an undercurrent of complicity between the hotel staff and the authorities--she knows she'll never recover her possessions. Stripped of her identity, she feels burdened by the crime yet strangely liberated by her sudden freedom to be anyone she chooses.

A chance encounter with a movie producer leads to a job posing as a stand-in for a well-known film star. The star reels her in deeper, though, and soon she's inhabiting the actress's skin off set, too--going deeper into the Casablancan night and further from herself. And so continues a strange and breathtaking journey full of unexpected turns, an adventure in which the woman finds herself moving further and further away from the person she once was.

Told with vibrant, lush detail and a wicked sense of humor, The Diver's Clothes Lie Empty is part literary mystery, part psychological thriller--an unforgettable novel that explores free will, power, and a woman's right to choose not her past, perhaps not her present, but certainly her future. This is Vendela Vida's most assured and ambitious novel yet.

Author: Vendela Vida
ISBN-10: 0062110918
ISBN-13: 9780062110916
Publisher: Ecco Press
Language: English
Published: 06/02/2015
Pages: 224
Format: Hardcover
Weight: 0.70lbs
Size: 8.50h x 5.80w x 0.80d

Review Citation(s):
Library Journal Prepub Alert 01/01/2015 pg. 71
Kirkus Reviews 03/15/2015
Publishers Weekly 04/27/2015
Booklist 05/15/2015 pg. 22
Shelf Awareness 06/16/2015
New York Times Book Review 06/28/2015 pg. 34
New York Times Book Review 06/21/2015 pg. 11
Library Journal 01/01/2015