Literary Fiction · ThoughtfulAfter his father dies, Benny Oh begins hearing voices from objects and spends time in a public library
The Book of Form and Emptiness
by Ruth Ozeki
A boy hears the voices of objects after his father's death and finds a refuge in a library
After his father dies, Benny Oh, a boy of Japanese-Korean descent, starts hearing voices from inanimate objects. His relationship with his mother, a media monitor and hoarder, gets worse. He begins spending time in a public library, modeled on the Vancouver Public Library, where he befriends a group of outsiders that includes an artist and a poet. The book itself narrates most of the novel, with some sections narrated by Benny. Viking and Canongate published it in September 2021.
More about this book
Who
Benny Oh, his mother, and outsiders at the library, including an artist and a poet.
World
A public library based on the Vancouver Public Library.
What makes it different
Mostly the book itself is the narrator.
Feel
Inventive and moving, at 560 pages.
Page count and cover shown for: Selected edition
Further reading
- The Book of Form and EmptinessWikipedia