"After a long career as an aid worker, Sabine Hardt has retreated to her native Germany for a quieter life. But when her American niece Lily disappears while volunteering in Uganda, Sabine must return to places and memories she once thought buried in order to find her. In Uganda, Rose Akulu--haunted by a troubled past with the Lord's Resistance Army--becomes distressed when her lover Ocen vanishes without a trace. Side by side, Sabine and Rose must unravel the tangled threads that tie Lily and Ocen's lives together--ultimately discovering that the truth of their loved ones' disappearance is inescapably entwined to the secrets the two women carry."--

"Featuring more than 100 locations, from ghost towns to amusement parks, roads to railways, hotels to hospitals. From war to chemical disasters, from grand follies to changing fashions, the story behind each striking image is explained."--Page [4] of cover.

New construction seems to be taking place all around. In every direction, there is another shopping center, neighborhood, or business park being built. With all the commotion and progress, it can be easy to forget what was. We tend to neglect the old, abandoned buildings around us, leaving them to decay or suffer a brutal demise by the cold, hardened steel of heavy equipment. In the world of photography, there are those who seek out these forgotten pieces of history in hopes of capturing what's left on camera, thereby preserving them in their own way. Author Sean Toler is one such photographer. Traveling the roads of Virginia, he has photographed numerous old, abandoned buildings in an effort to make them last a little longer. Knowing that some of the buildings he has photographed no longer stand, he is grateful that he was able to capture them before they disappeared from the landscape forever.

ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR: Forbes • Lit Hub • Electric Lit A gorgeous graphic memoir about loss, love, and confronting grief When Kristen Radtke was in college, the sudden death of a beloved uncle and the sight of an abandoned mining town after his funeral marked the beginning moments of a lifelong fascination with ruins and with people and places left behind. Over time, this fascination deepened until it triggered a journey around the world in search of ruined places. Now, in this genre-smashing graphic memoir, she leads us through deserted cities in the American Midwest, an Icelandic town buried in volcanic ash, islands in the Philippines, New York City, and the delicate passageways of the human heart. Along the way, we learn about her family and a rare genetic heart disease that has been passed down through generations, and revisit tragic events in America’s past. A narrative that is at once narrative and factual, historical and personal, Radtke’s stunning illustrations and piercing text never shy away from the big questions: Why are we here, and what will we leave behind? (With black-and-white illustrations throughout; part of the Pantheon Graphic Novel series)

For over ten years, fine art photographer Keith Dotson has explored and photographed abandoned places in black and white. His first photo book, "Unloved and Forgotten: Fine Art Photographs of Abandoned Places," features a selection of the most intriguing and beautiful locations he found in his travels. It includes richly reproduced photographs of abandoned houses, schools, churches, barns, storefronts, and even entire abandoned towns.The book highlights fascinating locations like Adams, Tennessee (home of the infamous Bell Witch legend), and Cairo, Illinois, which has rapidly depopulated and is in the process of becoming abandoned. He offers concise backstories of several locations -- a deserted mining town in Arkansas, a forsaken 1952 Plymouth found crashed against a tree on a steep hillside in the woods, and a derelict high school building with a historic graveyard on its property. Included is a brief history of George L. Mesker and Company, the mail order business that sold ornate, prefabricated ironwork storefronts to small towns across America starting in the 1880s. Mesker storefronts can still be seen on many abandoned (and preserved) buildings. The 48-page book is lavishly illustrated throughout with Dotson's black and white photographs.

"Haunting photographs" - The Wall Street Journal. "Henk van Rensbergen is a hero for urban explorers around the world" - Flanders Today. "As an airline pilot, Belgian-born Henk Van Rensbergen was used to travelling the world. But he found a great way to supersize that passion: hunting for the most wonderful, secret, haunting abandoned places" - CNN. While his crew is resting at the pool, pilot and photographer Henk van Rensbergen explores deserted city palaces, overgrown factories or desolate areas of nature, finding beauty in the decay. This engaging book of photographs, a revised edition with new material, lets us wander through abandoned places, including Abkhazia, a break-away region bordering Georgia and Russia and the newest must-visit for every urban explorer. AUTHOR: Henk Van Rensbergen is the pilot of a Boeing 787 and a pioneering Urban Explorer. For more than 25 years, he has been capturing the most beautiful pictures of desolate and forgotten places. His Abandoned Places picture books (1, 2, 3 and The Photographer's Selection) have been highly successful. SELLING POINTS: * A new selection of the best images from Henk van Rensbergen, an urban explorer pioneer, in a handy format * This revised and expanded edition of his bestselling photo book of unusual places is packed with fascinating new images, including over 50% new material 120 colour, 50 b/w images