Heidi Julavits's The Vanishers chronicles the paranormal warfare between a young psychic and her mentor. Julavits will interview Betsy Cohen, a real life psychic, about the quirks and dramas of the soothsaying industry.

About The Vanishers

From novelist and Believer editor Heidi Julavits comes a wildly imaginative, darkly funny, and emotionally powerful novel about grief, female rivalry, and the profound psychic bond between mothers and daughters. Like her acclaimed earlier novels, The Vanishers is a literary tour de force from one of our most inventive storytellers at work today.

Julia Severn, a student at an elite institution for psychics, has learned her lessons too well. Her mentor, the legendary Madame Ackerman, grows jealous of her young disciple's talents, and so subjects Julia to the humiliation of reliving a painful event: her mother's suicide. As the two lock horns, and Julia gains power, Madame Ackerman launches a desperate psychic attack that leaves Julia the victim of a crippling ailment.

Julia retreats to an anonymous existence in Manhattan, but others have noted her emerging gifts. Before long, she is recruited to track down an elusive missing person—a controversial artist who may or may have not known Julia's mother. As she sifts through ghosts and astral clues, everything Julia thought she knew about her mother is called into question, and she discovers that her own psychic abilities go far deeper than she ever imagined. Dazzlingly constructed and gorgeously written, The Vanishers jumps between time and space in a wildly imagined story that asks the provocative questions: Can the people we love make us sick? And how do we love them in return?

About the Author:

A founding editor of The Believer magazine and the recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship, Heidi Julavits is also the author of three critically-acclaimed novels: The Uses of Enchantment, The Effect of Living Backwards, and The Mineral Palace. Find out more online.

About Betsy Cohen:

New York City-based psychic medium and inspirational speaker Betsy Cohen is the host of the radio show The Power of Intuition. In addition to having 10 years experience in Social Work and a BA in Psychology, Betsy Cohen is also a reverend in the Spiritualist Church of NYC.

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