Published in 2021, The Book of Form and Emptiness stands as one of Ozeki's most profound and inventive works, blending realism, philosophy, and metafiction to explore how people make meaning in a noisy, material world.
The story follows Benny Oh, a thirteen-year-old boy who begins to hear the voices of inanimate objects after the sudden death of his father. As his mother, Annabelle, spirals into grief and compulsive hoarding, the household becomes crowded — not only with physical clutter but also with the growing chorus of talking things. Overwhelmed, Benny retreats to a public library, where he discovers a quieter order and encounters a literal "talking book" — the narrator of the story itself.
At its heart, the novel explores mental illness, grief, and the voices that fill human consciousness — both internal and external. Ozeki treats Benny's auditory experiences not as a pathology to be "solved" but as an alternate mode of awareness, challenging the boundaries between imagination, spirituality, and madness.
