''Nobody Is Ever Missing'' is a 2014 debut novel by American writer Catherine Lacey published by Farrar, Straus and Giroux.

Writing and publication

While working toward an MFA in non-fiction writing from Columbia University, Lacey worked on a book for four years, which she eventually abandoned. After she stopped working on that book, she began working on short stories; she eventually turned these into ''Nobody Is Ever Missing''. Lacey had a breakthrough in writing from the point of view of the narrator and central character, Elyria, while writing a specific scene in which she was "narrating a letter to her husband". The book's title comes from the

John Berryman John Allyn McAlpin Berryman (born John Allyn Smith, Jr.; October 25, 1914 – January 7, 1972) was an American poet and scholar. He was a major figure in American poetry in the second half of the 20th century and is considered a key figure in th ...

poem "Dream Song 29", published in Berryman's collection ''

The Dream Songs ''The Dream Songs'' is a compilation of two books of poetry, '' 77 Dream Songs'' (1964) and ''His Toy, His Dream, His Rest'' (1968), by the American poet John Berryman. According to Berryman's "Note" to ''The Dream Songs'', "This volume combines ...

''.

Reception

According to literary review aggregator Book Marks, the novel received mostly reviews the site characterized as "Rave" and "Positive". In his review of Lacey's second novel, '' The Answers'',

Dwight Garner Dwight Garner (born January 8, 1965) is an American journalist and longtime writer and editor for ''The New York Times''. In 2008, he was named a book critic for the newspaper. He is the author of ''Garner's Quotations: A Modern Miscellany'' and ...

praised ''Nobody Is Ever Missing''. Garner wrote that strong debut novels make him wary of an author's ability to produce a sophomore work of similar quality but he ultimately found his worries about the quality of ''The Answers'' unfounded. In a review for '' The Guardian'' the novel was praised as "wry, surprising, and blackly funny." With the reviewer noting, "Lacey has produced a novel of uncomfortable power."

References

2014 American novels Farrar, Straus and Giroux books Novels set in New Zealand English-language novels 2014 debut novels Novels set in the United States {{2010s-novel-stub