The Museum of Missing Girls

Politics of grief 

Gender, according to Amanda Mauri, is founded upon two pillars: loss and grief. Deftly weaving real-life events with moments from popular culture in a rich, kaleidoscopic prose, The Museum of Missing Girls creates a space for the author to muse thoughtfully on the key questions she proposes. Among other issues, Mauri discusses how feminism might benefit from a politics of grief; interrogates the possibility of subverting fear through art, humour and community; ponders the legacies of social movements whose hunger for resistance was born out of loss; and underlines the importance of the psychological and emotional landscapes of power.

Incorporating a genre-defying mix of essay, fiction and true testimony, the author creates an unflinching hybrid text which swirls around a central ‘secret’ – a traumatic memory which serves time and again as the backdrop to her ideas. Reflections on memory, desire, pain, violence and writing all interact to create a lucid and poignant work, capable of observing the often horrific nature of reality without losing narrative pace.

The Museum of Missing Girls may lead the reader on a journey beset by ghosts and shadows, but it doesn’t shy away from sudden beams of light in the dark.