Rebecca Richards-Diop asked Julia Phillips:

I just finished Disappearing Earth and found it both masterful and an immensely satisfying read! What an accomplishment! Thank you! I am curious… many of the women in the book consider making significant life changes but ultimately decide not to take the risk. Can you say more about what shaped that decision?

Julia Phillips Hi Rebecca, thank you so much for reading! And what a good question...this is something I didn't think about explicitly when writing, but have thought about more since the book came out. Someone told me once that they read all the main characters in the novel as thematically connected by the experience of captivity. That both surprised and resonated with me. It makes sense with the plot, I think, that every character, no matter their situation, is in some way held tight in place.

That stuck-in-place feeling is also one I sometimes associate with Kamchatka, which is so huge, beautiful, and full of opportunities to experience incredible things, but which also has really limited transit, few roads, short windows of good weather that allow movement, and restricted access to the outside world. I remember seeing a production of Chekhov's "Three Sisters" while I was there; the characters' longing for Moscow felt so resonant with some of my experiences on the peninsula. People feeling trapped while dreaming of the moment when everything will change. In the play (spoiler alert!) the sisters don't get to Moscow, and I suppose many of my characters don't reach their Moscows either...

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