The premise is simple, but the story quickly becomes surreal: the narrator’s husband leaves to buy a loaf of bread and never returns. Searching for him day and night, forced to explain his absence to friends and family, the unnamed narrator withdraws into a mysterious universe ruled more by image than language. In the wake of her husband’s disappearance, the world becomes a strangely immaterial place, shapeless, devoid of sentiment. Once-familiar territories become terrifying: the supermarket, the beach, the bedroom. Even the wedding album has changed: her husband’s face now appears altered in every shot.

An innovative, daring book on the physicality of absence, My Phantom Husband explores familiar reactions to sudden loss and the disruption of daily routine. Weaving an intricate web of exquisite metaphors and mesmerizing visions, Marie Darrieussecq once again astounds readers with her exceptional imagination and stylistic genius.