The Matter of Absence

In this affectionate elegy to his mother, Patrick Chamoiseau weaves together the recurring themes of his many novels, essays, and poems, such as the history of slavery, Africa and its Traces in the Caribbean, Black cultural practices from storytelling to jazz, and the daily life of his family. Chamoiseau adds to this sweeping canvas a meditation on the evolution of the human species and the emergence of consciousness from an encounter with death. Filled with rich descriptions and keen insights, The Matter of Absence is an intimate memoir set against the backdrop of world history. Accounts of his mother’s everyday activities evoke a world redolent with the fragrance of the market and the sounds of the street, while references to major cataclysms in Martinique’s past ground the personal in collective experience. The Matter of Absence challenges generic boundaries, blending poetic fragments with historical narrative, memoir, and philosophical reflections into an unforgettable song of loss.

Patrick Chamoiseau, best known for his novel, Texaco, which won the prestigious Prix Goncourt in 1992, has published over thirty works in a wide variety of genres—from novels, memoirs, poems, and essays to screenplays, a children’s book, and even a graphic novel. Chamoiseau invents a language all of his own, combining Martinican Creole and French to recount the lives of memorable protagonists or to describe the cataclysms of history. Born in 1953 in Fort-de-France, Martinique, Chamoiseau has consistently advanced Creole culture, arguing for an appreciation of the phenomenally rich cultural landscape of the Caribbean produced in the wake of enslavement and loss.