I struggle with non-fiction books but I am fascinated by missing people cases so thought I would give this one a go.

This book lacked substance for me. Sure, there was some insight into the author's life whilst his dad was still around, and some other dips into other situations of missing people, but I felt the "stories" were missing. There was nothing personal here and to be honest at the end of the book I was left feeling rather flat.

Thanks go to the author, publisher and NetGalley for the opportunity to read this book.

I enjoyed this book; a fascinating insight into the world of the missing and the worlds of those they leave behind.

Although I was never expecting it, finding out what happened to the author's father neatly finished off this book.

I am not a huge non-fiction reader, so I want to make it very clear that my enjoyment of this book may very well be down to struggling with the genre rather than this book specifically.

If You Were There follows the tale of people who go missing. García has lived his life in the shadow of a missing father, Christobal, who left their family home one day, never to return. As he walks in the footsteps of the missing, will he find his family?

This was a bit of a mixed read for me, I found some of it really interesting and did learn a few things. I particularly loved the aspects of García’s personal life, they added a wonderfully personal touch to this book. However, other parts felt dragged out and a little repetitive, although they did give me much to ponder. I loved the bravery with which García told his families story, and all of those who contributed to the book with their personal stories.

My biggest issue was that after a while, I had no desire to pick the book up. However, I can often experience this with non-fiction as I read to get an escape from everyday life! I had hoped that the topic would interest me enough to keep me hooked but unfortunately that was not the case. That being said, I do not want my review to put off potential readers, I feel that those who love non-fiction will appreciate this more than I was able to.

I would recommend this to fans of non-fiction. I want to thank Netgalley, HarperCollins UK and Francisco García for sending me a copy of this book so I can give my personal thoughts.

An interesting and thoughtfully written book, this is poignant, informative and thought-provoking. Looking into the circumstances where people go missing, the systems that exist to track them and hopefully find them (if they want to be found) and what happens to the people left behind.

This book started well, and was really interesting, but I've reached 35% now and it feels bogged down in statistics and data on missing persons, so the book isn't what I thought it would be.

An extremely thought provoking read. A real eye opener into the world of families trying to cope with loved ones who go missing.

The author’s own honest experience of life up to and after the disappearance of his father when he was young. The steps taken by agencies to help the families and how he felt and reacted to each. His refusal to be defined by his this heartbreaking situation. Along with others who have been affected by a similar situation.
ARC copy.

This is an intriguing and fascinating dive into the number of people who go missing, what is done to find them, and what happens to the people left behind. Francisco García’s father left when he was seven. He has an empathy with the people he talks to, whether those left behind or those who work in agencies and charities trying to find them. Overall the book is very moving and thought provoking. Why do people choose to disappear? What proportion come back or are found?

Some of the people interviewed have lived lives in limbo uncertain where their relatives or friends are and what has happened to them. The people working in the sector understand some of the many, many reasons people have to just walk away from their lives. It certainly gets under your skin. But this is not a depressing book. It is written with a framework of whether the author should search for his father. I won’t give any spoilers but if this is an idea you find interesting, this book will give you much to think about.

I was given a copy of this book by Netgalley

I decided to listen to the audio, via Borrowbox.

The details:
Read by: the author
Unabridged

the book
Missing people have always been a huge issue in the UK, the highlight being on cases of child abduction such as Madeleine MccAnn. I remember that being the first case my young mind at the time picked up on and was really disturbed by. "That could be me. That could be my little cousins", I remember thinking at the time.

So fast forward years later, when I saw this book available on Netgalley, I was very intrigued by the discussion of missing people (the focus being on adults), specifically hearing their stories in interviews and how life is like for the disappeared and those left behind to wonder where they went and why.

It felt both memoir and social science and married those two genres well together. I feel like it kept to the theme appropriately but gave it that personal touch that makes you feel more empathy and willingness to learn and want to help even more.

It was interesting to see how the pandemic and it's restrictions had an affect on people going missing as well. I hadn't even thought about this as a device.

My eyes were opened to other related topics that hadn't even crossed my mind, such as;
-Country lines
-Human trafficking
-Mental health/vulnerable people
-etc.
Discussing these variants really amplified how much can influence a person becoming missing (voluntarily and involuntarily) and how complex these cases really can be.

the narrator
This was so fascinating and the narrator's (it was read by the author) voice was incredibly soothing... I thought it was just what you needed to hear, for such a heavy and emotional, triggering topic such as being discussed.

A moving and emotional account of a man’s search for answers surrounding his fathers disappearance when he was a young boy.

Francisco Garcia's father left the family when Francisco was a child. An unemployed alcoholic, adrift, Christobal made the choice to walk away rather than deal with the issues in front of him. He has been missing ever since. twenty years later, Francisco takes up the search for answers, trying to work out why and how this happened. He explores missing people charities and the police and families who search for loved ones lost. In the end, this is less a story about one missing person and more an exploration of our human responsibility to one another.

Francisco Garcia is a British journalist in his late 20s on the search for answers to his father's disappearance 20 years earlier. As Francisco expands on his backstory and the motivation to write this book, we hear about his father's struggles as a working class Spanish migrant to London in the '90s, his parents' love story, his father's incremental difficulty to adapt to his new environment and to his new found status as a young father. While we hear more about his mother's premature death when he is still a boy and of being brought up by his grandmother who will also pass 10 years later, his father will remain a mystery to Francisco just as his paternal language and country do,

Along the way on this personal quest. Francisco visits and revisits other avenues and stories in order to resolve the puzzle of missing people. He interviews voluntary agencies and police forces working in the search for people reported missing, homelessness services, agencies operating within the world of unclaimed and/or unidentified corpses, accidental deaths, modern day slavery academics and campaigners, etc.

I cared more for the personal story than the journalistic section and ultimately that got in the way for me. The journalistic style was as superficial and approximative as you would expect mainstream journalism to offer. I would have loved to hear more from actual people who have decided to drop everything and take off, but we only get one first hand interview of that nature and it is not a particularly illuminating one other than in terms of the handling of it by involved agencies (i.e. the police) and the need for improvement there. When it came to material which I am more familiar with due to my own profession, the lack of depth and understanding of the subject matter was more evident to me (e.g. loc 1085/3472 "Paramedics and healthcare workers will look to see if people can retain and repeat information, though police have a different criteria, as do social services, who work by the 2014 Care Assessment Act": for starters what is being referred to here is the Care Act 2014, not the Care Assessment Act. But more generally, all mentioned services should be following the Mental Capacity Act 2005, so no, no different criteria here though for sure the application of the legislation may vary in terms of competence).

I found the ending maddening, but fair enough: it is not for me to apply my judgement to Francisco's decision making. It is a very personal journey.
Ultimately I felt there were some good nuggets in this book, and I was invested in the personal narrative thread.
I just wish the author had the confidence to run with that and had set himself free from the shackles of pedestrian journalism.
So for these reasons, though I'm giving this a 2.5 stars, I am rounding it all up to 3 stars.


Many thanks to Mudlark (HarperCollins UK Nonfiction) and NetGalley for sending me a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

What a heartbreaking read, it is a very detailed analysis of the current missing person situation in the UK and ask the very important question of what is the definition of missing person, as there is no one size fits all answer.

Francisco's personal story brings him on a journey of discovery which won't bring specific answers but at least acceptance and insights.

I would have liked to read more stories.

An important insight into "missing people" and the people they leave behind. Based partly on the author's own experiences and pulling in alarming statistics and professional input, this is an eye-opening read.

this was a really interesting and thoughtful book about the missing persons crisis, specifically in the uk but it touches on other countries. it covers so many aspects, from police staff to charities to government and a whole range of heart and statistics in the middle

it made me feel a lot and i learned a lot and what more can you ask of a book

Christobal Garcia , originally from Spain , arrives in Britain with his wife and they have a young son Francisco , unfortunately Christobal can never settle , has periods of unemployment and drifts between Spain and Britain . Eventually unemployed and in the grip of drink and drugs he decides to disappear leaving his wife and 7 year old Francisco to their own devices . Some 21 years later Francisco tries to find answers to the whereabouts of his father after he searches in Britain he decides to go to his father's home village in Spain where he hopes to find people who remember his father and member's of his family . A profound read mentioning the help he had from people in many walks of life who help with the homeless and missing people.

Starting with Francisco Garcia's own experience of his father's disappearance, this is a poignant, informative and thought-provoking exploration of the many circumstances in which people go missing, the system which exists to find them, their right to be forgotten, and what happens to the people left behind.

Such a moving story. Sad and complex but non judgemental. The impact on so many lives when a person goes missing is explored in detail. Beautifully written.

This thought provoking dive into missing persons is a real triumph. The author draws from his own experience, but his missing father does not define the book. Garcia investigates many different avenues and really makes the reader consider what it means to be a missing person. At times this book is heartbreaking and at others, life affirming; I feel richer for having read it.

Francisco Garcia’s father disappeared when he was seven years. Christobal had many problems- he was out of work and addicted to drugs and alcohol. This book follows Francisco’s journey in U.K. and Spain to try and find out what happened to his father and includes the stories of people/professionals he meets in the search.
Poignant, harrowing and uplifting this book delves into the world of the disappeared and those they left behind.
A worthwhile read.
Thanks to Netgalley for allowing me to read this book in return for a fair review.
4 Stars ⭐️