A Quiet Disappearance (Mawenzi House) by Rabindranath Maharaj assembles short stories whose central characters are preoccupied with the relentless onward march of time. Containing as its epigraph a brief quote from Virginia Woolf that says, “I should like to tidy things up and disappear,” each story in the collection delves deep into the inner lives of its men and women, as they try to reconcile themselves to a rapidly shifting world. The title story reveals a son’s fragmentary relationship with a father succumbing to illness, conveyed in unsentimental prose that yet reveals a deep, abiding heartache.