Pobby and Dingan, by Ben Rice

Ben Rice is also the author of a wonderful (so I have heard, from my friend Marianne, who can't find the copy of The New Yorker that it was in--that would be the December 24-31, 2001, issue, in case anyone feels like helping a brother out) short story that appeared in The New Yorker (like I said). Pobby and Dingan is a novella about the titular imaginary friends of a young girl named Kellyanne, and how their disappearance leads to misfortune for her family and the Australian mining town where they live. Kellyanne's brother Ashmol hates Pobby and Dingan, but finds himself the leader of an all-out search for them, and what results is weird and touching and wonderfully sad. This is an overlooked gem, much as Rice himself appears to be. Check it out.