Evan L. Balkan

From page one, I was drawn into the story of 15-year-old Lilly and older, out-of-towner Lee on their doomed road trip across the Great Plains in the summer of 1976. By a third of the way through, the slow boil tension was almost unbearable. I also found the dynamic between two generations of mothers and daughters equally compelling and quietly agonizing. It would have been easy to draw conclusions about these characters but they themselves didn't allow it — which is my favorite thing about a good book.… (mais)

The author covers eight 20th Century people who disappeared generally doing what they loved -- scowing down the Grand Canyon, going after Pancho Villa, circumnavigating the globe. Perhaps unavoidably considering the topic, there are a lot of unanswered questions and I found myself wanting more. More information, more stories, just...more.

The writing style is very conversational, with digressions here and there that add to the story. I would recommend it, but I would have liked to see it expanded as well as see photographs that the author describes in the text but are not published in the book.

As an aside, the body of one of the lost explorers, Everett Ruess, was identified a few weeks ago and his death explained, so I suppose he is no longer Lost.… (mais)

I enjoyed this book - more than I expected to. It gave a personable, yet thoughtful and objective account of the circumstances under which several famous (or less so) explorers and travelers disappeared, leaving mysteries and personal loss in their wake. Balkan devotes a fair amount of time discussing the current state of knowledge (academic, scientific, and otherwise) regarding their disappearance, search efforts, and likely scenarios leading up to their last days. Some of the theories surrounding the missing range from the lurid to the absurd, but Balkan's treatment of both the missing and of the theories is considerate of personalities, the times they lived in, and other important context that seems to have been overlooked in other accounts. Throughout, his prose reads smoothly, interspersed with anecdotes and observations about the times in which the missing traveler made their way. Balkan's perspective as a well-traveled mountaineer informs his recounting and examination of these people's last days.… (mais)