Wednesday, March 12, 2008

The Vanishing by Tim Krabbé

Details: First published 1984; cover shown is the 2003 Bloomsbury (UK) softcover edition. Cover by William Webb and Daniel Blaufuks. 115p.

Bought for $2.00 at a St Vinnies opportunity shop.


Blurb:
"Petrol gauge broken, anxiety and tempers flaring, young lovers Rex and Saskia, heading for the south of France, pull in at a service station to refuel. The moment they stop they make up, and Rex buries two coins at the base of a fence post as a sign of their love. Saskia goes off to buy cold drinks and vanishes. Eight years later Rex is still haunted by her. Then one day he sees scrawled in the grime of a yellow car parked outside his window the words REX YOU'RE SO SWEET, and the obsession burns in his blood again."

'The Vanishing' has been filmed twice, once in its native Holland and once in the USA. Stanley Kubrick told the director George Sluizer that he thought the Dutch film of 'The Vanishing' was even more frightening than his own film, 'The Shining'.

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