Description

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

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 doesnt start when youre 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 Booys innovative novella asks us to find beautyeven gratitudein 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