The Book of Form and Emptiness

BOOK DESCRIPTION

A brilliantly inventive novel about loss, growing up, and our relationship with things, from the Booker Prize-shortlisted author of A Tale for the Time Being.

After his father’s sudden death, fourteen-year-old Benny Oh begins to hear voices. The voices belong to the things in his house – a sneaker, a broken Christmas ornament, a piece of wilted lettuce. Although Benny doesn’t know it, the voices are speaking to him from the pages of a book, telling Benny’s story.

As Benny and his mother Annabelle spiral into their own kinds of trouble, Benny retreats to the sanctuary of a public library, where he meets a cast of unforgettable characters. Winner of the Women’s Prize for Fiction, this is an ode to books and the power of narrative to heal.