Absence

An elusive narrator is beguiled by a poem that returns to him in mysterious ways, echoing across the years. He recounts memories and impressions as they float fleetingly to the surface of his mind: an eccentric and beloved schoolteacher leaves behind a dark secret after his death; a woman lays the table for a son she knows will never return home; a young man, the pariah of his family, finds solidarity and the distant call of freedom in the letters of an estranged Aunt; a black and white photograph tells of another family, afflicted with generations of tragedy. These are some of the people and stories that haunt the pages of ABSENCE. Thishypnotic novel is a stirring evocation of the limitless depth of the present - a symphony subtly constructed out of the murmurs, memories and phantoms that add up to an ordinary human life.