The Absent Therapist

Shortlisted for the Goldsmiths Prize 2014

‘The Absent Therapist is a miniature but infinite novel, and unlike anything I’ve read before. It’s just achingly good.’ Luke Kennard

The Absent Therapist is a book of soundings, a jostle of voices that variously argue, remember, explain, justify, speculate and meander… Sons and lovers, wanderers, wonderers, stayers, leavers, readers and believers: ‘The biggest surprise of all is frequently that things and people really are as they seem.’

‘These are gripping narratives, with intriguing shifts of register, but they are also technically experimental and daring. Each sentence is weighed, poised. The intelligence with which Will Eaves handles language is modest and rare. The absent therapist is the listening reader to whom this compelling book is a fabulous gift.’ Patricia Duncker

‘The whole book is like someone deeply charismatic and charming daring you not to find them insane. It’s wonderful.’ Nicholas Lezard, The Guardian

‘I was gripped and awed by Will Eaves’s The Absent Therapist, touching, addictive and unlike any other book.’ Thomas Adès, TLS ‘Books of the Year