A powerful account of a journey to the killing fields of Poland and a brilliant examination of the work and suicide of Primo Levi head this cast of dazzling essays. Kenneth Sherman brings a beautiful,. Laconic style and true originality of through to these various pieces that include incisive readings of H G Wells, Czeslaw Milosz, Tomas Transtromer, as well as a convincing reconsideration of Rupert Brooke. As the title suggests, all these pieces point to that interplay between absence and presence, emptiness and the human voice of creation that arises to counter it. Kenneth Sherman already has a reputation as an extraordinary poet and this book will demonstrate that he is also one of our best essayists.