by Ruth Ozeki
First published 2022
Benny Oh loses his musician father and suddenly household items start talking to him. A sneaker mutters complaints. A broken Christmas ornament whispers sad stories. Wilted lettuce hums gentle melodies. When his mother begins hoarding, the cacophony grows unbearable. The voices follow Benny to school and into the streets. He escapes to the public library, where objects behave politely and speak softly. There he meets a street artist who performs with her ferret, and a homeless poet who asks difficult questions. Most importantly, Benny encounters a Book that narrates his own story and teaches him which voices deserve attention. As his mother's hoarding worsens and the object voices multiply, Benny must learn to distinguish between the noise that hurts and the sounds that heal. His journey becomes one of finding his authentic voice amid the chaos of a world full of talking things.
Genres: fiction, literary-fiction, contemporary, magical-realism
Vibes: emotional, intimate, thought-provoking, whimsical
Tropes: found-family, unreliable-narrator
Setting: Library
Period: Contemporary
815 pages · Library Binding · Thorndike Press Large Print
Content warnings: mental-illness