The Book of Form and Emptiness
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The Book of Form and Emptiness
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Narrated by:
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Ruth Ozeki
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By:
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Ruth Ozeki
About this listen
WINNER OF THE WOMEN’S PRIZE FOR FICTION
NATIONAL BESTSELLER
A brilliantly inventive new novel about loss, growing up, and our relationship with things, by the Booker Prize-finalist author of A Tale for the Time Being
One year after the death of his beloved musician father, thirteen-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. 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.
With its blend of sympathetic characters, riveting plot, and vibrant engagement with everything from jazz, to climate change, to our attachment to material possessions, The Book of Form and Emptiness is classic Ruth Ozeki—bold, wise, poignant, playful, humane and heartbreaking.
©2021 Ruth Ozeki Lounsbury (P)2025 VikingCritic reviews
WINNER OF THE WOMEN’S PRIZE FOR FICTION
WINNER OF THE 2022 BC AND YUKON ETHEL WILSON FICTION PRIZE
LONGLISTED FOR THE 2023 DUBLIN LITERARY AWARD
INSTANT NATIONAL BESTSELLER
GLOBE AND MAIL BESTSELLER
TORONTO STAR BESTSELLER
GUARDIAN'S BEST FICTION OF 2021
TIME MAGAZINE'S 100 MUST-READ BOOKS OF 2021
One of:
TIME’s “34 Most Anticipated Books of Fall 2021”
The New York Times’ list of “10 new books we recommend this week”
The Globe and Mail's "Fall 2021 books preview: Pump up your autumn with these weighty reads"
Amazon's Best Books of September 2021
CBC's "33 Canadian books coming out in September we can't wait to read"
CBC's "65 Canadian works of fiction to watch for in fall 2021"
CBC’s “34 great Canadian books to check out in fall 2021”
Toronto Star's "25 books for the readers on your holiday list"
Quill & Quire's “2021 Best of Fall guide”
Los Angeles Times's "30 Books We're Most Anticipating This Fall"
Yahoo's "25 New Fall Books That’ll Turn Just About Anyone Into a Bookworm"
Vulture’s “40 Books We Can’t Wait to Read This Fall”
LitHub's "22 Novels You Need to Read This Fall"
“In an extraordinary year for fiction written by women, and from an incredibly strong shortlist, we were thrilled to choose Ruth Ozeki’s The Book of Form and Emptiness, which stood out for its sparkling writing, warmth, intelligence, humour, and poignancy. A celebration of the power of books and reading, it tackles big issues of life and death, and is a complete joy to read. Ruth Ozeki is a truly original and masterful storyteller.”—Mary Ann Sieghart, 2022 Chair of Judges for the Women’s Prize for Fiction
“This compassionate novel of life, love and loss glows in the dark. Its strange, beautiful pages turn themselves. If you’ve lost your way with fiction over the last year or two, let The Book of Form and Emptiness light your way home.”—David Mitchell, Booker Prize-finalist author of Cloud Atlas and Utopia Avenue
“Heart-breaking and heart-healing—a book to not only keep us absorbed but also to help us think and love and live and listen. No one writes quite like Ruth Ozeki and The Book of Form and Emptiness is a triumph.”—Matt Haig, New York Times bestselling author of The Midnight Library