Nobody Is Ever Missing (novel)

While working toward an MFA in non-fiction writing from Columbia University, Lacey worked on a book for four years, which she eventually abandoned.^[1] After she stopped working on that book, she began working on short stories; she eventually turned these into Nobody Is Ever Missing.^[1] Lacey had a breakthrough in writing from the point of view of the narrator and central character, Elyria, while writing a specific scene in which she was "narrating a letter to her husband".^[2]

The book's title comes from the John Berryman poem "Dream Song 29", published in Berryman's collection The Dream Songs.^[3]

In his review of Lacey's second novel, The Answers, Dwight Garner praised Nobody Is Ever Missing.^[4] Garner wrote that strong debut novels make him wary of an author's ability to produce a sophomore work of similar quality but he ultimately found his worries about the quality of The Answers unfounded.^[4]

In a review for The Guardian the novel was praised as "wry, surprising, and blackly funny." With the reviewer noting, "Lacey has produced a novel of uncomfortable power."^[5]