The Presence of Absence

By: Simon Van Booy

Narrated by: Philip Battley

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 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 us 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 listener, 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.

©2022 Simon Van Booy (P)2022 HighBridge, a division of Recorded Books

Beautiful Medication on the Presence of Absence

This novella, "The Presence of Absence," is a beautiful meditation on loss and finding immortality in the memory of the loved ones left behind. The language is poetic and metaphoric as the dying writer grips with his mortality. He does not see death as an end but as a transition of life energy. The book invigorated me and made me contemplate my life. I would recommend this book.

original and relatable

Truly a gift, and would make a great gift for anyone who loves timeless classics. The writing is superb.

About Dying

This is another Simon van Booy novel in which he shows his great prowess as a writer who can get into the deep mind of his characters
and let them lift or drag him as their minds do.

Wonderful in every way!

Prose that’s both lyrical and precise, full of love and compassion and hope, deeply spiritual in a somehow very grounded way.

I am a dunce -

I am sorry. I so tried to listen. I must be a dunce. Hey ho you asked for two more words.