Horizon Information Portal

e-branch

Home

My Account/Renew Loans

Find Magazine Articles & more

The book of form and emptiness : a novel / Ruth Ozeki.

by Ozeki, Ruth L.

View full image

Fathers -- Death -- Fiction.

Teenage boys -- Fiction.

Libraries -- Fiction.

Compulsive hoarding -- Fiction.

Women's Prize for Fiction.

9780670070176 (hc.)

548 p. ; 24 cm.

"After the tragic death his beloved musician father, 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 understand what these things are saying, he can sense their emotional tone; some are pleasant, a gentle hum or coo, but others are snide, angry and full of pain. When his mother, Annabelle, develops a hoarding problem, the voices grow more clamorous. At first, Benny tries to ignore them, but soon the voices follow him outside the house, onto the street and at school, driving him at last to seek refuge in the silence of a large public library, where objects are well-behaved and know to speak in whispers. There, Benny discovers a strange new world, where "things happen." He falls in love with a mesmerizing street artist with a smug pet ferret, who uses the library as her performance space. He meets a homeless philosopher-poet, who encourages him to ask important questions and find his own voice amongst the many. And he meets his very own Book-a talking thing-who narrates Benny's life and teaches him to listen to the things that truly matter."--Publisher.

Winner of the Women's Prize for Fiction, 2022.

Psychological fiction.

Magic realism (Literature)

Canadian fiction.

Horizon Information Portal 3.24_8902M

© 2001-2013 SirsiDynix All rights reserved.

Horizon Information Portal