Winner of the 2023 Eyelands International Book Award
A New York Times Book Review Summer Reading Selection
An Indie Next Pick
A Barnes & Noble Book Everyone's Talking About
A NH Public Radio Summer Reading Pick
A New York Post Best Book of the Week
A Parade Magazine Historical Fiction Pick
A Travel+Leisure Pick
A Country and Town Home Pick
An Arkansas Democrat-Gazette Notable Book of 2020
A Joan's Pick at Whitcoulls
"The narration ... deliver[s] the details of privation and fear as well surprising moments of kinship and generosity with an unforgettable grace... The future is unimaginable, Binder writes -- and yet, somehow, those who are left will find a way to carry on. A masterful story of war, horror, and love."--Kirkus Reviews
"Written in purposefully even prose that is nonetheless harrowing, it's an intimate tragedy that's all the more powerful for refusing the ending we fervently hope for."--Stephanie Cross, The Daily Mail (UK)
"Achingly beautiful ... Binder's work is subtle and compassionate yet also clear and devastating in its depiction of a nation -- and its people -- suffocating under the weight of an insidious and inhuman ideology, one that ultimately devastates those who believe its illusions. Enduringly relevant."--Ben Adams, The Advertiser
"The Vanishing Sky reveals the German home front as I've never seen it in fiction... Binder tells her story patiently, like an artist placing tiny pieces into a mosaic; this literary novel isn't one to race through. But I find it gripping, powerful, and a brave narrative, unsparing in its honesty."--Larry Zuckerman, Historical Novels Review
"Binder has created a moving and powerful masterpiece."--Michael Tidemann, The Dubuque Telegraph Herald
"The Vanishing Sky reminded me a great deal of All Quiet on the Western Front. It isn't an easy book to read, but it's magnificent all the same." --Jo Niederhoff, Seattle Book Review
"This magnificent story takes place during the final months of WWII and most of the action takes place in a small town in Germany. That's all I'm going to say. Read the book, then thank me. [Binder] possesses an awesome talent." --Vick Mickunas,The Book Nook, WYSO
Binder "uses Etta Huber, a hausfrau in a rural village, as a means of feeling her way back into the past, channeling the anguish and uncertainty of the final months of the fighting."--Alida Becker, New York Times Book Review, Summer Reading Guide
"A moving tale of a family destroyed by war... Binder unfolds a harrowing tale in limpid, expressive prose."--Nick Rennison, The Sunday Times
"Eloquent, and painfully human"--Liam Heylin, The Irish Examiner
"An empathic portrayal of the human cost of war... Binder's etched prose, her unwillingness to whitewash complicty, and the focus on Etta, a mother trying to hold her family together as madness and horror descend, offers a genuinely tragic vision."--Cameron Woodhead, The Sydney Morning Herald
The Vanishing Sky is a powerful look at the capacity for evil that humans are capable of. It is an account of the effect one resolute generation's self-imposed 'amnesia' can have on the next .. [T]here is not one false note. The Vanishing Sky is fully controlled storytelling that avoids cliché, even as its winter turns into spring, even as it recounts the final days of a war still being fought by those who barely understand why."
--Steven Whitton, The Anniston Star
"Heartwarming and exciting... [T]his book along with movies such as Hitler's SS, A Portrait of Evil, and Jojo Rabbit explains how the strands of hatred reached out and entrapped whole families in a web of evil."--Yehudit Collins, The Jerusalem Post
"Binder is not only a fine writer -- her prose is crystal clear, and her characters and plot well developed -- but she has also done both literature and history a great service with The Vanishing Sky. The Vanishing Sky stands as a warning about the evils of totalitarianism and about the brutality of war. "--Jeff Minick, The Smoky Mountain News
Binder's debut explores familiar territory from a fresh perspective. The result is an engrossing novel peopled by believable and sympathetic characters."--Max Davidson, The Sunday Mail
"The novel has an unfussy, understated feel--reflected in Binder's calm prose--that belies its powerful impact. It's alternately subtle and striking, quiet and then, suddenly, deafeningly loud."--Richard Hopton, Country and Town House
"You can't read this book and not be affected...This is a must read if you are a fan of WWII historical fiction."--Sandra Pereira, Portugal News
"Touching and horrifying, and so beautifully told"--Eileen MacDougall, The Wilmington Apple
""There is a gentle melancholy thoughout this novel, as if the author wished she could write something else, something happier, but was compelled to write this story. We should all be glad she did."--Bob Moore, Good Reading Magazine
"The Vanishing Sky tells a tragic story, but it also serves as a meditation on tragedy and the everday cruelty by which tragedy is so often begotten... A moving and worthwhile read .... particularly relevant today."--Sarah Schroeder, The Washington Independent Review of Books
"Binder creates a believable, lost world with Etta and Georg. He is the book's Odysseus, his mother its Penelope. The ending is inevitable, and we are left with an overriding--and poignant--sense of loss."--Grace Lichtenstein, Book Page
"A fresh take on the madness of war."--Publishers Weekly
"A haunting portrait of a nation slowly collapsing"--Fran Hawthorne, The New York Journal of Books
"Binder's lyric prose demands nothing of us other than to slip into this world she's created -- and done so with exceptional insight and deep compassion -- to discover not the drama of the war's violence and horror, rather how it plays out on an ordinary German family... Binder so superbly achieves this humannness with words of unpretentious, poetic, and resonant storytelling... I loved this book."--Kassie Rose, Book Critic at WOSU Radio and The Longest Chapter
"A powerfully gut-wrenching and beautifully told war story."--Penny at Book Jam Vermont
"A moving and intimate portrait of an ordinary German family... with characters that will break your heart and stay with you long beyond finishing the book."--Suzanne Lang, Host of A Novel Idea, Northern California NPR
"A poignant, sad, beautifully told new novel, a tale in which time and place shape a life and a family." -- David Rothenberg, WBAI Radio (NYC)
"A haunting debut novel" and a "skillfully crafted account of loyalty and disillusionment, struggle and hope. It offers detailed insights into the routines of daily life during wartime and the trauma of ordinary people who were led to feel they were righteous and invincible now realizing that the leaders they trusted were evil." -- Sybil Steinberg, Sybil's List for Summer
"Etta's love for her boys permeates everything - she'd do anything to have them home and keep them safe, but the machinery of war doesn't make allowances for mothers who love their sons. Based on the author's own family history this resonated greatly with me, also a mother. Our boys are special, all of them, and this is a special book." -- Joan Mackenzie, Whitcoulls (New Zealand)
"The stark accounting of the personal damage inflicted by war draws its power through its homey details, as one family's life is blown apart." -- Booklist
"A heartrending and blazingly lucid depiction of Nazi Germany." -- Miriam Toews, author of Women Talking
"A hugely ambitious novel whose consummate, patient artistry is moving beyond measure." -- Matthew Thomas, New York Times best-selling author of We Are Not Ourselves
"This is a story -- in all its rich layers -- that dazzles, breaks your heart, clutches you, and gets you back up again." -- Paul Yoon, author of Run Me to Earth