This was a different genre of book that what I normally read but I enjoyed it and would recommend it if you are looking for something different than your usual read!

A really deep book that explores relationships and grief in the most clever of ways. I wasn’t quite sure when I read the blurb but thankfully I read on. An absolutely beautiful book and very quirky and original.

This is a beautifully written coming of age story that I couldn't put down. Ozeki's writing is compelling and heart warming

Ruth Ozeki’s The Book of Form and Emptiness is a compassionate novel of ideas, exploring our conception of hearing voices, grief and trauma, materialism, capitalism and the very nature of things, often from a Zen Buddhist perspective.At times bleak, as she looks at what humans do to this planet, at times playful and funny, this is also a book about books and the voices within them. The book opens with the death of Kenji, beloved father to Benny and husband to Annabelle, and his bathetic means of death (he is run over by a chicken truck), reverberates through the novel. Two of the strongest voices in the novel are the Aleph and Slavoj, (aka the Bottleman), who are outcast from conventional society yet befriend Benny as his world unravels. The Aleph and Slavoj are conduits for fascinating digressions into the work of Borges, the life of Walter Benjamin and Paul Klee’s Angelus Novus. Although always compassionate towards her, I wish Ozeki had not made Annabelle become very fat as she starts to hoard objects in her grief. It felt like a lazy trope that rankled with me. I enjoyed the scope and intelligence of this book and can’t help but be in awe of its ambition.

Winner of the Women's Prize for Fiction, the Book of Form and Emptiness is a powerful book about dealing with grief and loss.

After Benny's father dies, he begins to hear things - objects speaking to him. He can't understand what they are trying to say but he can tell how they feel. Objects speak to him everywhere, at home, and at school - he struggles to escape them. His mother Annabelle, is also struggling to cope with her grief, and is developing a hoarding problem as she can't let go of things. With the voices at home getting too much for Benny he escapes to the quiet of the Public Library and meets new friends, and most importantly, his own Book which narrates his life.

While The Book of Form and Emptiness seems complex and philosophical, it is an incredibly easy and accessible read. Ozeki creates a colourful cast of characters - both human and inanimate. The plot twists and turns, from very deep serious topics to lighthearted humour and satire. Ozeki interrogates the meaning things, belongings, objects carry for us, and how they speak to us in different ways, but simultaneously poking a little fun with the Marie Kondo-esque angle of the Zen Buddhist monk's anti-clutter guide. There are so many differently layers to this novel, it could be read again and again and offer something different each time.

This is an incredibly timely novel about the intersections between poverty, race, trauma, mental health and identity. Ozeki doesn't exploit the suffering of Benny, Annabelle or her other characters - she helps us to truly understand them and to acknowledge that what they are experiencing might make them different or special, but certainly never less than anyone else.

The Book of Form and Emptiness is an incredibly clever book - though perhaps at times too clever. The devices Ozeki employs to tell the story sometimes instead distance us from it - taking us away from the characters and into the realm of philosophy. However, ultimately this is a heartwarming, and at times magical book which digs into the heart of how we live, love each other and learn to let go.

This is a story that requires some amount of patience to appreciate. It is entirely unique in its presentation of a family of two being tossed around by thoughts that they are unable to control but that control their ultimate behaviour.
The mother and son duo have lost the thread that held their tiny family together. Benny Oh starts to hear inanimate things talking to him, making him stick out at his 'normal' school even more than he would have otherwise. His mother does not help his standing by becoming something he feels entirely too ashamed of. The fractured relationship buckles further under the strain of their own mental issues. They are unable to communicate with each other, and the entire book deals with the ins and outs of what happens when a child is identified with 'psychological' issues. Annabelle has her own moments of strength where she manages to get herself together enough to ensure Benny's well-being, but the moments do not last, and this further enrages her son.
There is a lot of emotion prevalent throughout the book. It is not an easy or quick read. I think it was the final ending that gave me some closure. If I had not had that amount of closure, I might not have liked this book at all.
I would not recommend this to everyone: there will be a certain type of person who will get more out of this than others would. By reading the blurb, one can confirm in which category they fall. The writing by itself is good, and I would definitely pick up another book by the author.
I received an ARC thanks to NetGalley and the publishers but the review is entirely based on my own reading experience.

An incredibly original novel, I could never guess where it was going to go. There's huge themes in the book, which I couldn't do justice in a review, and it would feel like a spoiler to say what the central question is. Really enjoyable. 4.5 stars.

Brilliant read, it was actually my first of Ozeki’s but I will now be going back to read her other works.

Thanks so much to Netgalley and the publishers for letting me read an advance copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.

Wow this took some reading! I requested it as soon as I knew the novel was shortlisted for the women's prize and I can see exactly why it is has won.

This is an epic book in the way it weaves a tale of grief and mental health with our main characters Benny and his mother Annabelle who have recently lost their father/husband Kenji. The book itself starts to talk and we have the word's perspective on telling a story as well as hearing the many voices that Benny hears as he develops schizophrenia. I loved reading the story of the words, the book itself and their opinions, these were my favourite parts and I have highlighted many a philosophical quote. The wonderful sections of the book 'Tidy Magic' which are written by a Zen Buddhist are amazing too and I love the idea of patting an object that you tidy away (whether you donate it to charity or give it away) and thank it for its service to you, for bringing you joy, is a beautiful one (and I have seen this written about elsewhere).

I have given this novel 4.5 stars (bumped up for Netgalley) because although I loved certain sections I was not too impressed by the length of the book as a whole and I think whole chunks of Benny and Annabelle's story could be removed and it would not affect the story one bit. In fact it would make the rest more impactful and I would not have laboured through the novel as much as I did. It is a wonderful novel but it feels very long in places.

This quirky coming-of-age story is a wonderful slow-burn and quite the tome at more than 500 pages. The characters are fascinating and creep into your heart, after closing the book on Benny and his mom, I am still thinking of their world. Thank you to the publisher and Netgalley for the ARC.

This novel is so interesting and well written. The story is complex but fascinating. A mother and her teenage son and how they both cope with the death of their husband/ father. such a good read

This disappointed me despite all I’d heard. I wanted to love it but couldn’t. It felt like a chore, perhaps that is because it went over my head and maybe it is more a reflection on me.

We are the stories we tell ourselves. We make ourselves up. We make each other up too.

One book, when read by different readers, becomes a different book, becomes an ever changing array of books that flow through human consciousness like a wave.

Those are, not exact but close enough, captions from the end of the story that describe readers experience with books so perfectly. You may have read this book, read the same words as I did, but our experiences are not the same. They couldn't possibly be. Readers are collaborators with the books. The writers gives us words, but they have no power over how we will take them.

I cannot possibly describe this book, it's an experience like no other. It has different levels and stories within it, all masterfully intertwined. I will not try to describe the contents of the book, I don't have the words for it. I can tell that this book is sad and hopeful, it is a book worth reading.

After the tragic death of his beloved musician father, fourteen-year-old Benny Oh begins to hear voices. The voices belong to the things in his house--a sneaker, a broken Christmas ornament, a piece of wilted lettuce. Although Benny doesn't understand what these things are saying, he can sense their emotional tone; some are pleasant, a gentle hum or coo, but others are snide, angry and full of pain. When his mother, Annabelle, develops a hoarding problem, the voices grow more clamorous.

This is just a bare outline for this book as it is much, much more. The book covers a range of topics such as loss, grief, art, poetry and philosophy. This is definitely a worthy read.

This is a first for me by the author and one I enjoyed and would read more of their work. The book cover is eye-catching and appealing and would spark my interest if in a bookshop. Thank you very much to the author, publisher and Netgalley for this ARC.

I suffer from crippling big book fear - had I seen the physical book before embarking on this read I think I would have walked straight past and what a fool I would have been. This was a phenomenal read and one that I will be recommending for years to come.

Ozeki's "The Book of Form and Emptiness" is a beautifully written and thought provoking coming-of-age novel,.

In 1931, Walter Benjamin wrote an essay entitled “Unpacking My Library: A Talk about Book Collecting” which recounts his experience dealing with many volumes in his personal library which he had not touched for two years. As he leafed through the pages, he found himself reencountering familiar texts that stood in his mind for various reasons from intellectually captivating him into personal stories in autobiographies. As a critic, Benjamin’s ‘bookish’ fondness towards his books went against the theoretical foundation that he normally employs when touching those books. Benjamin wrote: "Every passion borders on the chaotic, but the collector's passion borders on the chaos of memories."

It’s not without reason that books dominate the scenes in Ruth Ozeki’s latest book and there are a lot of signifiers to Benjamin’s ideas here. Benjamin’s quotes from “Unpacking My Library” feature in between parts. Even the main character himself is called Benjamin ‘Benny’ Oh, a 14-year old school boy who lost his Korean-Japanese father Kenji Oh in a tragic accident where he got run over by a chicken truck. Kenji’s death brings calamity to the family, showing the fractured relationship between Benny and his mother, Annabelle. Benny begins to hear voices from things around him and was admitted to a pediatric psychiatry ‘Pedipsy’ hospital, while his mother risks losing her job at the media monitoring agency due to the digitalisation of mass media. In ‘Pedipsy’, Benny found the love of his life, whom fellow patients call Alice or Athena, but then later identifies herself to Benny as the Aleph.

Ruth Ozeki manages to intertwine the Zen Buddhist concept of form and emptiness, while also discoursing over bookish culture through Walter Benjamin’s point of view. Books could be seen as an attempt to build a permanent form, by materialising ideas and transmitting them to the people who live far in the future. Ozeki also happens to use a strange narrator besides Benny in her story, namely the Book. The Book tells the story alongside Benny, narrating Benny’s life in such details that Benny himself did not realise previously. She also discusses minimalist movement, in the form of a book within book, in which she describes the book ‘Tidy Magic’ by Ai Konishi which Annabelle read in between her activities to get some ideas about organising her stuff after Kenji’s death. In time, Annabelle sent various fan letters through email to Ai Konishi, telling her the story of her life. In some ways, Ai Konishi brings about similar vibe to Marie Kondo, starting from their abbreviated names (‘Aikon’ vs ‘Konmari’) and their best-seller titles (‘Tidy Magic’ vs ‘The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up’). I guess it’s also worth bringing into attention that Marie Kondo dedicates a chapter for organising books in her book, with the primary view to discarding them (a bit un-bookish, oops).

Also as a Zen Buddhist priest, Ruth Ozeki brings a lot of Buddhism references to the story, mostly in the background. But her discourses are interesting with her characters that discuss philosophical ideas, particularly about how neoliberalism and capitalism control our mindsets. Her characters are mainly social misfits, or those who look ‘okay’ in their daily lives but actually struggling to cope with their problems. Benny is described as being able to listen to strange voices from stuff around him and no one believed him until he found friends in the Aleph and the Bottleman who taught him to write poems and ask philosophical questions such as “What is real?” Form and emptiness, as the title of the book suggests, are two fundamental ideas of the prajnaparamitha sutras. Form is the material phenomena of the universe. Emptiness means that all these things are born out of a gathering of karma, with a beginning and ending, with impermanence as its nature. Thus, reality itself could be seen as possessing no self nature due to its impermanence.

It took me a while to get a sense of the story. The first one-third of the book feels like a children story, with sentences that I thought unnecessary and unnatural. But I began to like the story following Benny’s encounter with the Aleph, which could be said as a life-changing experience for him. It tells that no form is permanent, that our circumstances will keep changing throughout our lives (and deaths, if reincarnation happens). But for better or worse, I think the plots are not that interesting (although some ideas through the conversations of characters are worth-noting).

After the sudden death of his father, Benny Oh starts to hear the voices of inanimate objects. As his mother Annabelle develops a hoarding problem, the voices get louder and he can’t seem to ignore them. Seeking refuge in a large library, he meets characters living on the outskirts of society who force him to confront some big questions. Strange and unusual, this multi-layered novel discusses philosophy, climate change, materialism and grief in a playful, engaging manner. I loved getting to know Benny and all of his idiosyncrasies. I cried alongside Annabelle and relished in the hopeful note that it ended on. We all have a book inside us but what happens when that book wants nothing more than to get out and live a life of its own?

I know other people loved this and I had held off reading it thinking I would love it but I did not.
I found it about 200 pages over written and very slow burning. I liked the idea but not the execution. It was well written though and the story was sad but not for me.
Read through netgalley

I fear this is not the book for me. I am around 150 pages in and feel I should have been drawn in by now, but it hasn't happened. It also feels a bit preachy which I don't like. I find the talking objects feel too constructed. I did very much enjoy Ozeki's A Tale for the Time Being, which had a very special magical quality to it, but I could not find that here.