An elusive narrator is beguiled by a poem that returns to him in mysterious ways, echoing across the years. He recounts memories and impressions as they float fleetingly to the surface of his mind: an eccentric and beloved schoolteacher leaves behind a dark secret after his death; a woman lays the table for a son she knows will never return home; a young man, the pariah of his family, finds solidarity and the distant call of freedom in the letters of an estranged Aunt; a black and white photograph tells of another family, afflicted with generations of tragedy.

These are some of the people and stories that haunt the pages of Absence. This hypnotic novel is a stirring evocation of the limitless depth of the present – a symphony subtly constructed out of the murmurs, memories and phantoms that add up to an ordinary human life.