Part biography and part reportage If You Were There is an affecting look at missing people in the UK. The best non-fiction changes your perception by making you aware of things.

The difficulty of defining what a missing person is, for example. It was not something I had previously considered, but once Garcia explains why it is troublesome to characterized who is and isn't missing, it is hard to believe I overlooked it.

Garcia explores the emotional fallout from his father walking out on him when he was a child and mixes this with interviews of professionals who work to find missing people and people whose family members have gone missing.

While reading the book, I picked up a lingering scent about the futility of looking for someone who either doesn't want to be found or, for one reason or another, can't be found. The sad emptiness of those left behind. Garcia talks to these people with understanding and empathy. Reading how they fill the void either with misplaced hope or the indignant desire to change things or something else was heartbreaking.

Garcia writes with clarity and does a superb job of weaving his personal accounts with those to whom he talks. It is a striking book that packs a punch both emotionally and intellectually. One of the things that Garcia eloquently illustrates is how rarely there is a clear resolution to these cases, even in those where the missing are found. It is powerful stuff.

Thanks to Netgalley for the ARC.

A moving, tender and sensitive story of one man’s search for his lost family, If you were here is a powerful and timely reminder of our responsibility to others. It is one of the best non-fiction books I have read. Francisco Garcia skilfully takes us through the role of the searches, the places to go, the returning missing, those left behind and ends with the end of the line. His incisive investigation challenges our understanding of what it means to be missing and how it feels for those left behind. The narrative interrogates our conception of missing people , as Francisco tells the stories of those he meets along the way. We hear about the people, the investigators, the charity employees, the volunteers, the once missing and those perilously at risk around us, the mainly, the friends and all those left behind. A personal story, Garcia explores his own relationship with people who go missing. Christobal his father finally disappears for good, going back to Spain after Garcia’s mother died. Garcia was only seven. A range of missing persons indicates that there are those who come back, those who choose to go missing, those who go missing or absent themselves, those who abscond from, family homes, homeless shelters, care homes and mental health wards. The statistics are realistically alarming. Up to eight in ten adults are living with mental illness both diagnosed and undiagnosed. At least seven in every ten victims of child sexual exploitation will have been the subjects of a missing persons report. Garcia shows it is possible to write non-fiction that is ethical while respecting the trust and dignity of interviewees.

A fantastic non fiction read, telling the story of how Francisco’s father left the family home never to return. This hit me close to my heart. Every side of the story is taken in to account not just the opinions of those left behind. Heart wrenching at times, this is a truly detailed study of missing people and the effect on the lives of everybody involved.

"If You Were There" is an interesting exploration of the impact the people who go missing leave behind. The book is extremely well written but due to personal reasons I found myself quite triggered by the subjects explored in this book. Nevertheless the book was extremely helpful to educate myself of the subject of missing people.

My thanks to #Netgally and #Mudlark publishing for allowing me to review this book.
I found this particularly interesting as a family member actually works with homeless people. For the majority the homeless are a statistic and a possible inconvenience, but how many of these nameless and faceless people are missed and looked for loved ones.
This book puts their plight into context .

I thoroughly enjoyed this book. It was a very honest and personal read touching on sensitive subjects. The thoughts of different individuals affected and involved with missing people were really interesting.
A recommended read.

I thoroughly enjoyed this book. It was both insightful and informative, while being very emotional throughout. It is a very honest read and touches on very personal and sensitive subjects. It was great to read the thoughts and opinions from different individuals affected and involved with missing people. It is a very current plot and touches upon matters in relation to lockdown and coronavirus. This is a deeply moving read and made me feel a huge amount of compassion and empathy for anyone affected by any of the subject matters. Quite eye opening.

The author's father is a missing person and he uses his personal experience to probe into how people are affected when their loved ones go missing. I suspect some of the research for this book was impacted by the pandemic and it seems like it was as indepth as it could be. A lot is about the author's personal journey but without a lot of information to go on, it didn't really come to any kind of conclusion about missing people. Which is perhaps a reflection of the impact it has on loved ones.

When Francisco Garcia was just seven years old, his father, Christobal, left his family. Unemployed, addicted to drink and drugs, and adrift in life, Christobal decided he would rather disappear altogether than carrying on dealing with the problems in front of him. So that’s what he did, leaving his young wife and child in the dead of night. He has been missing ever since. Twenty years on, Francisco is ready to take up the search for answers. Why did this happen and how could it be possible? Where might his father have gone?

This is a very moving story that takes us on a journey across Britain and back to Spain, his father's homeland. We learn of the people Francisco met along the way and the key workers who helped him in his search. This is a first for me by the author and one I enjoyed and would read more of their work. The book cover is eye-catching and appealing and would spark my interest if in a bookshop. Thank you very much to the author, publisher and Netgalley for this ARC.

A very personal journey of self reflection and identity, ultimately using the book as a way of building courage to find his father who left the family as a small child.

The book was quite full and shallow. Whilst the author did research and travelled around, it didn't go into the depth I would expect. It was the ramblings of someone stumbling around the topic because of a personal and unresolved issue from their hildhood.

This book tells the story of a personal journey whilst exploring the viewpoints and experiences of those the author meets along the way. This includes those left behind by someone who went missing, just as the author’s father left him behind; professionals and volunteers dealing with the missing from various different directions and even one person who intentionally went missing and was found “safe and well”. There are important issues with even that outcome, because the mentality of going intentionally missing isn’t always far from that of suicide and this is why there’s a need for the police and other agencies to tread more carefully than most people realise. People going missing through an accident, such as falling in a canal and not being found for some time is dealt with and at least this kind of disappearance is amenable to energy being put into safety measures to prevent accidents near deep water in cities. There is no other side of the coin with stopping someone from drowning, as there is with finding and bringing back someone whose circumstances drove them to flee. Cases of people who have gone missing almost certainly as a result of a criminal act are mentioned, but the author does not get to grips with this and it’s hard to see how he could, because victims of kidnap and murder cannot speak and the perpetrators will very probably utter only lies.

The decision the author finally takes when he travels to his father’s home city in Spain would be surprising for anyone who hasn’t read the book through to that point, and the book appears to have been mostly written as the author went along with his search so readers see the decision as it happens. But the thoroughness of this book in the way it identifies and deals with as many relevant issues as it can, allows the reader to fully understand the decision when it comes. It’s a useful book for people to read, because none of us will have any advance warning if someone we know chooses to go missing. There are avoidable mistakes which tend to be made in such situations and it’s no good trying to learn how to react while it’s all happening. More than a hundred thousand people go missing in Britain every year and everyone has some responsibility to develop an understanding of the issues.

I haven’t encountered a lot of other non-fiction on this particular theme, but Abbie Greaves’ novel “The Ends of the Earth” has a similar conclusion.

Thank you NetGalley for giving me a digital ARC in exchange for an honest review.

'If You Were There (...)' is a story of Francisco Garcia whose dad disappeared from his life when he was a kid. This traumatic event left an imprint on the boy, who had no idea why his father left him and his mom. Twenty years later, the author goes to great lenghts to find the answers. This non-fiction book is a thorough exploration of missing and what happens to those who were left behind.

I requested this book simply because the premise seemed so intriguing to me that I couldn't help but get interested in it the moment I saw it. The first chapter piqued my interest, but while I was reading on, it slowly vanished. There was too much data for my taste and some of the descriptions were too lengthy. My disappointment may come from the fact that I expected it to be a memoir, so I could dive deep into Garcia's feelings about this tragic event. However, some of the stories in it were truly fascinating. I recommend this book to everyone who wants to expand their knowledge when it comes to the subject of missing, but if you are one of those who look for an emotional, poignant reading experience, this book may be a miss for you.

Part memoir, part critical examination of a society that has allowed so many people to fall through the cracks in this age of austerity.

The writers father disappeared from his life shortly after the death of his mother. The unanswered questions lead him to consider other people's stories and he meets people working on the frontline, whether it be those doggedly searching for the missing, or those providing support to the rough sleepers. He asks why people choose to leave their lives. What happens to those left behind? How do you move forward when you never know where a loved one is?

Deeply sad, and a shocking testament to a broken system, there are still moments of hope. Those who dedicate their time to the missing and the left behind. Those who have lost a loved one, but who channel their grief into helping others.

And as the writer demonstrates, sometimes not knowing is in itself, a choice.

This was an interesting book which merged the story of the author’s father’s disappearance with stories of other disappearances and a discussion of societal pressures and struggles that mean that people do disappear. I found it easy to read, and thoughtful, but also thought that coming from different angles meant that it didn’t quite settle at any point (that may of course have been the author’s intention).

If You Were There is the story of Francisco Garcia and his Dad, Christobal, who left and disappeared without a trace. Twenty years have now passed and Francisco is finally ready to look for answers. This non-fiction book is an exploration of missing people and the mark they leave behind. It also delves into the work of the people who try and find the missing. Throughout the book Francisco interviews and talks to both friends and strangers, people who have been affected by missing persons or who have tried to help reunite people in some way.

I really enjoyed reading this book. It felt very personal yet was filled with facts and figures about missing persons that were really eye opening. I first read Francisco Garcia's writing when I came across his now widespread VICE article 'The Man Who Deleted His Past Before He Was Found Dead' and so I was keen to request this when I saw it on NetGalley.

I would wholeheartedly recommend this to friends and family. Whilst not always an easy read, it was well written and informative whilst still being honest and personal.

Thanks to #NetGalley and #HarperCollinsUK for my ARC in exchange for an honest review.

This is a mix of memoir and journalism: Garcia's starting point is the disappearance of his father when he was a boy and these sections were the most moving and emotive for me. The rest is an exploration of the world of the missing: the police, agencies, charities and people involved. I like that this is up to date with covid having an impacts on people's stresses and also the ability of charities to keep up their work as volunteers are suspended. But this also looks at structural problems: the cutting of all kinds of social care from the 2010 coalition 'austerity' government (the figures are shocking) to the cultural down-playing of mental well-being (are we finally coming out of the mental health closet?).

Garcia makes important connections that lead all the way back to Thatcher's policies including the selling-off of council and social housing, and the effects of homelessness or unstable homes subject to predatory landlords on people's well-being - and the way some, like his father, go missing through being unable to cope with so many pressures.

There are also stories here of those who are thrown out of their homes by parents who find their LGBT+ status impossible.

So a world of pain, pressure and rejection is kept under control by the cool, journalistic approach. But Garcia understands what it means to be one of the abandoned and his own search gives emotional ballast to the stories being told.

Extremely interesting exploration of what it means to be “missing” and what happens to those left behind. In this well-researched account of all those who become involved when someone goes missing – and this involves more people and organisations than I was aware of, and the subject is so much more complex than I imagined – Garcia opens up a world that most of us are lucky enough not to have anything to do with. Garcia himself was not that lucky. His own father disappeared when he was just 7, and that loss has informed his life since then. Although this is indeed a personal and heart-felt memoir, it is also primarily a really important examination of the subject, and although naturally Garcia’s emotions come through, it is by no means a “misery memoir” and he manages to remain objective and non-judgemental throughout. I really feel that I learned a lot from this book and it is an important and relevant read.

I was very moved by this book, which deals eloquently with the issue of people who go missing. The author's own father's story is heart-breaking but is told with sympathy and understanding. This book made me think about an issue which fortunately has never directly touched my own life and I would definitely recommend it.

A poignant read that I suppose resonated more because I know Andalucía well. Extremely well crafted. Not normally one for covers either but this one hits home

Thank you for my advanced copy of this great non-fiction book on missing people.

Garcia writes about his own father and his experience of his father going missing and any subsequent searches he undertakes to find him. Other chapters delve into how people go about searching for missing loved ones: the searchers, the charities that help, how the police get involved, as well as speaking and writing about those who have gone missing but returned; the impact that has had on their lives and the stigma attached.

I've always enjoyed TV series that involve fictional characters, like Without a Trace as well as programmes like Long Lost Family, where real family are reunited. This book though really made me think about the problems of going missing and being found. There is always a reason people choose to go missing and they may not wish to be found if it was under their own choosing.

All in all this was a great mix of the personal and the factual and I really enjoyed reading about the problems of becoming 'missing', for the searchers and the missing.

#netgalley #IfYouWereThere #FranciscoGarcia @francisco_garciadf