First published 1979
A son grapples with the void left by an absent father in this intimate exploration of family wounds. The protagonist searches through memories and fragments, trying to piece together understanding from what was never there. He examines the spaces where guidance should have existed, the conversations that never happened, the masculine presence that remained forever out of reach. His quest takes him through relationships that bear the mark of this absence, romantic connections shadowed by uncertainty, friendships where he seeks what family failed to provide. The search becomes both literal and metaphysical as he weighs what he inherited against what he lost. Robison crafts a story about the particular grief of missing something you never had, the way absence can define a life as powerfully as presence ever could.
Genres: literary-fiction, memoir, family-drama
Vibes: emotional, intimate, thought-provoking
Tropes: found-family, search-for-identity
112 pages · Paperback · Tyndale House Pub