In Conversation: On The Book of Form and Emptiness

Neda Ulaby reports on arts, entertainment, and cultural trends for NPR’s Arts Desk. Her radio and online stories explore political and economic realities, cultural issues, obsessions, and transitions. She also hosts Culturetopia, a podcast of NPR’s best arts stories. Before joining NPR, Ulaby worked as managing editor of Chicago’s Windy City Times and co-hosted a local radio program, What’s Coming Out at the Movies.

Ruth Ozeki is a novelist, filmmaker, and Zen Buddhist priest. She is the author of three novels, My Year of Meats: A Novel, All Over Creation: A Novel, and A Tale for the Time Being: A Novel, a finalist for the 2013 Booker Prize. Her nonfiction work includes a memoir, The Face: A Time Code, and Halving the Bones, a documentary film. In The Book of Form and Emptiness (Viking), it's one year after the death of his beloved musician father and 13-year-old Benny Oh is hearing voices. They belong to things in his house – a sneaker, a broken Christmas ornament, a piece of wilted lettuce. Some are pleasant, emitting a gentle hum or coo. But others are snide, angry, and full of pain. Soon the voices follow him outside the house and, just for silence and relief, Benny goes to a public library. There, among other marvels, he meets his very own book – another talking thing – who narrates Benny’s life and teaches him to listen to the things that truly matter. Publishers Weekly marveled at “Ozeki’s illuminating postmodern latest [as it] explores themes of mourning, madness, and the powers of the imagination … This is the rare work that will entertain teenagers, literary fiction readers, and academics alike.”