The Presence of Absence - by Simon Van Booy (Paperback)

About the Book

"'Language is a map leading to a place not on the map, ' announces a young writer lying in a hospital bed at the beginning of The Presence of Absence. As he contemplates his impending physical disappearance and the impact on his beloved wife, he realizes, 'Life doesn't start when you're born . . . it begins when you commit yourself to the eventual devastating loss that results from connecting to another person.' Stripped of artifice, The Presence of Absence is a meditation between the writer and the reader, an imaginative work that challenges the deceit of written words and explores our strongest emotions. The Presence of Absence parts the darkness to reveal what has been just out of sight all along"--

Book Synopsis

"Flows with depth and power....wide-open wonder."-Washington Post

"Simon Van Booy electrifyingly combines story with parable....wise, witty and always breathtakingly beautiful."--San Francisco Chronicle, Best Fiction of the Year

As a writer lies dying, he has one last story to tell: a tale of faith and devotion, a meditation on what lies beyond this life, and a prayer of gratitude that may lead to rebirth. This is Simon Van Booy at his visionary best.

"Language is a map leading to a place not on the map," announces a young writer lying in a hospital bed at the beginning of The Presence of Absence. As he contemplates his impending physical disappearance and the impact on his beloved wife, he realizes, "Life doesn't start when you're born . . . it begins when you commit yourself to the eventual devastating loss that results from connecting to another person."

Infused with poetic clarity and graced with humor, Simon Van Booy's innovative novella asks the reader to find beauty--even gratitude--in the cycle of birth and death. Stripped of artifice, The Presence of Absence is a meditation between the writer and the reader, an imaginative work that challenges the deceit of written words and explores our strongest emotions.

Simon Van Booy is not only a master storyteller but a writer whose fiction is rich with philosophical insights into things both mapped and undiscovered. The Presence of Absence parts the darkness to reveal what has been just out of sight all along.

Review Quotes

"Flows with depth and power....From its outset, The Presence of Absence runs blood-rich with declarations that make you inhale sharply....wide-open wonder."
-Washington Post

"Rich in setting and emotion. As ever with Van Booy, the reader is in good hands."

--Publishers Weekly

"Simon Van Booy electrifyingly combines story with parable. The Presence of Absence boggles and reverberates: wise, witty and always breathtakingly beautiful."
--San Francisco Chronicle, Best Fiction of the Year

"Formally playful and fable-esque . . . If you don't just like reading, but reading about reading, then this is the book for you."
--Minneapolis Star Tribune

"With its elegant passages on love and the fallibility of memory . . . this indelible portrait of transience, sorrow and hope will move readers."
--Shelf Awareness

"It took some nerve to venture into this territory--death . . . we are privileged to encounter Max Little dying and pondering questions that date from the start of our species hundreds of thousands of years ago."
--East Hampton Star

"This amazed me. It's so deftly, delicately written, it seems as if real breeze is blowing--this, in the context of serious, sad subject matter. It's a perfect integration of form and content, though who would have imagined it this way except Simon Van Booy? Reading it made me think about the many things hidden in and from our lives that appear only when they do. It's a moving, brilliant book."

--Ann Beattie

"Some books have a voice that you tune into, a voice you know you can follow no matter where it's going...The Presence of Absence is impossible to resist. A captivating fable that echoes in the mind long after the book is finished."

--Ilya Kaminsky