Not Anywhere, Just Not

(Paperback)

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Description

Boy meets Girl, Boy marries Girl, and years later Boy mysteriously disappears in this Gordon Lishstyle novel.

The boy and the girl have been married for decades, mostly getting along as they go about their lives. But one day, like thousands of people around the world, the boy vanishes, and the girl is left to wait, wonder, and worry. Will he return Who might she be if she moves on without him

This is a world where every morning the cat gets fed and the coffee gets made, but also one in which God sometimes lives in the garage she likes to sleep on the freezer and gigantic words can fall from the sky.Not Anywhere, Just Notcracks open the small dramas of our lives to show the dread and wonder inside all of us.

"Ken Sparling is a brilliant writer and this book, like all his books, is a beauty. Sparling chronicles the times I fear mostthe moments of loneliness, of loss, of ennuiand somehow makes them seem worthwhile, even wondrous, and often flat-out funny. His work makes life look livable, which makes him a wizard to me." Derek McCormack, author ofCastle Faggot

"A gorgeous rendition of the domestic uncanny,Not Anywhere, Just Notis an ostensibly quiet book that slowly and carefully unnerves and unsettles you--both because of its precise swapping out of reality and because of just how familiar it so often seems. All of us, Sparling seems to say, are on the verge of vanishing at any moment." Brian Evenson, author ofSong for the Unraveling of the World

Reviews

"In Ken Sparlings sixth novel, people sometimes just disappear. And when they reappear, they cant quite say where theyve been. When this happens to one half of a middle-aged couple, the partner who remains frets about his eventual return. Bordering magic realism and absurdity,Not Anywhere, Just Notis sure to be a metaphysical delight." Andrew Woodrow-Butcher,Quill & Quire'2023 Spring Fiction Preview'

Author Bio

Ken Sparling is the author of six novels: Dad Says He Saw You at the Mall, commissioned by Gordon Lish; Hush Up and Listen Stinky Poo Butt, handmade using discarded library books and a sewing machine; a novel with no title; For Those Whom God Has Blessed with Fingers; Book, which was shortlisted for the Trillium Award; Intention | Implication | Wind; and This Poem is a House. He lives in Richmond Hill, Ontario, and shares his handmade books at kensparling.ca and on Instagram @kensparling