A strange, thoughtful book. The Book of Form and Emptiness is both a deeply moving story of family, loss and love, and a provocative lesson in mindfulness and the art of mastering inner peace.

After his father’s death, Benny Oh starts hearing voices. At first the voice is his father’s. But then he starts to hear the voices of other things: chairs, mouldy cheese, half-eaten cartons of yoghurt, and even books. His mother, Annabelle, is also grieving. Empty in her own way, she pulls inward and becomes a hoarder. Alone and haunted by the voices around him, Benny retreats to the library where he discovers another kind of family in the colourful characters who gather there, including a homeless poet and a silver-haired girl trying to be a street artist. It is here among the books, that Benny must find his own voice.