The Disappearance of Irene Dos Santos

"Engaging and intricately woven....Whether dreams or real life, these are lyrical tales of love and the determination to survive in a country always on the verge of upheaval."

"The Disappearance of Irene Dos Santos is an intricately woven tale of love and memory from a deeply talented writer."

"Mascarenhas uses a 15-year-old girl's disappearance to spin a multilayered history of a Venezuelan family, incorporating folklore, political intrigue and magical realism...This family epic is immersive; no character or event is left unexplored from multiple perspectives. Indeed, the conclusion is like the final piece of an intricate puzzle."

"In a book teeming with people, [Mascarenhas] manages to fix identities very firmly, with a fine sense of irony."

"This debut novel is an engrossing tale of stories within stories, myths, dreams, legends, skeletons in closets."

"Skin is a good book and Margaret Mascarenhas a writer whose prose has this superb ability to keep you shackled to the book to its very last page."

"Powerfully adventurous in technique and style, intriguing and exotic in locale and history, this novel appeals to the sense like the passion flower that Mascarenhas uses metaphorically throughout the novel."

" Exploring the tangled relationships binding mothers and daughters, best friends and lovers, Mascarenhas' magical novel is inhabited by an eclectic cast of characters whose lives are inexorably altered by the missing Irene dos Santos."