It doesn’t have an American writer character observing what’s going on, but it is shaped by my American or foreign perception of what is happening. My book is set in Kamchatka and focuses on Kamchatkan characters.

Q: Who were the readers you had in mind while writing?Ī: American readers. Those were all things I brought with me to the peninsula and things I ended up using to shape the book. I love a story of power and violence and gender and racial and cultural and class dynamics. I’m very obsessed at home with stories about missing girls. When I went to Kamchatka, I realized I had gone to search for some story, but really the story I wanted to write was one I’d brought with me. I chose Kamchatka because it was fascinating, beautiful, and historically and geographically significant. I wanted to write books, but I didn’t know exactly what they would be about-I thought if I did them in Russia, I could combine all my interests. I was a Russophile in high school and in college I spent some time in Moscow. Q: How did the idea for the book emerge? Why Kamchatka?Ī: I originally went to Kamchatka in 2011 because I was looking for a place in Russia I thought would be a good setting for a novel. The Moscow Times’ Anna Kasradze spoke with Julia over Skype about her debut novel published in May 2019.

She draws on her experiences in Kamchatka from 20 to write about both Slavic and indigenous Even communities, with a particular focus on the tensions between them. A New Jersey native and graduate of Barnard College, Phillips traveled to the volcanoes and tundras of the Russian Far East where she conducted research for her book. The novel follows different but interrelated female characters wrestling with these questions in their daily lives.

Set on the Kamchatka Peninsula, 'Disappearing Earth' by Julia Phillips explores questions of gender and race ignited by the mysterious disappearance of two ethnically Slavic young girls, Alyona and Sophia.

Disappearing earth characters