Tue, Jan 16
|Stone Soup Books
Book Discussion: Presence of Absence by Simon Van Booy
As a writer lies dying, he has one last story to 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.
Time & Location
Jan 16, 2024, 6:30 PM
Stone Soup Books, 150 Race Ave, Waynesboro, VA 22980, USA
About the Event
Drop in book discussion group. Only rule is we discuss the book! Let us know if you need a copy of the book.
Our Jan 16, 2024 discussion is on “Presence of Absence” by Simon Van Booy
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.”
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.