The Disappeared – Amy Lord

An unflinching tale of resistance in dark political times

Caroline Ambrose, The Bath Novel Award

What if reading the wrong book could get you arrested?

Expressing the wrong opinion in a decaying city controlled by the first General can have terrible consequences. Clara Winters knows this better than anyone. When she was a child, her father was taken by the Authorisation Bureau for the crime of teaching banned books to his students. She is still haunted by his disappearance.

Now, Clara teaches at the same university, determined to rebel against the regime that cost her family so much – and her weapons are the banned books her father left behind. But she has started something dangerous, something that brings her to the attention of the Authorisation Bureau and its most feared interrogator, Major Jackson. The same man who arrested Clara’s father.

With her rights stripped away, in a country where democracy has been replaced with something more sinister, will she be the next to disappear?

Winner – Northern Writers Award

Longlisted – Bath Novel Awards

Read the first chapter here.

Amy Lord

Amy Lord is a writer and freelance arts marketer from North East England. Her debut novel, The Disappeared, was originally published in 2019 and will be reissued by SRL Publishing in 2024.

The Disappeared won a Northern Writers Award and was longlisted in the inaugural Bath Novel Award.

Amy is currently working on a new novel. She also writes short fiction and has had work published by Reflex Fiction, The London Reader and Palm-Sized Press. Her writing has received funding from Arts Council England and the Society of Authors. She has an MA in Creative Writing from Newcastle University and mentors emerging northern writers.

More about Amy Lord