What Is Missing

Mr. Frank explores the ways that scientific breakthroughs have caused the legal meaning of family to become detached from its genetic definition. The complicated family unit he ultimately forms is very much like this rewarding novel: something that may appear basic and old-fashioned but is in reality built on uncharted ground. --Sam Sacks, The Wall
Street Journal

A penetrating examination of how a life can be defined by contingency and surprise, marked both by the absence of things long dreamed of and by unexpected presences. --The New Yorker

Frank's psychologically astute, engrossing debut novel demonstrates his keen instinct for family dynamics that was evident in his fascinating memoir, The Mighty Franks . . . Frank's compelling characters each contend with their inchoate sense of self and their abiding need for family. --National Book Review (5 Hot Books)

[A] memorable debut . . . The novel is filled with trenchant moments of sweetness and betrayal, as well a stunning reveal of the harrowing gauntlet infertile women go through to conceive. This is an intricate and dynamic examination of familial ties: both what strengthens them and what can tear them apart. --Publishers Weekly

Frank is insightful and sympathetic on the mental and physical toll of [IVF] treatments, and he has a strong sense of family dynamics and crackling dialogue . . . [An] overall impressive debut. --Kirkus

Touching on heady topics with plot aplenty, [What is Missing] will easily appeal to readers who like to lose themselves in big, multivoiced dramas of love and family. --Booklist

Michael Frank's masterful and psychologically acute first novel--which leads us with equal confidence through the light-saturated streets of Florence and the hushed and polished halls of Upper East Side New York--asks the most urgent questions about biology and nurture, about filial and parental love, and about what we're willing to suffer to find out who we are. This is a wise and necessary book, one I've been recommending ardently to everyone I know. --Julie Orringer, author of The Flight Portfolio

"This sophisticated erotic triangle of a novel is by turns sensuous and harrowing, driven by a point of view roulette masterfully played. For a reader unfamiliar with the experience of assisted reproduction, Michael Frank's novel is an eye-opener. The ethics-testing extremes here left me thinking about the dire need to balance power between women and men long after I sped to the last page. --Rachel Howard, author of The Risk of Us