Isabel, a mid-30s woman in Sydney, feels outwardly content but senses something missing in her life. She flies to London with Lewis, a new boyfriend she barely knows, seeking a change that does not fully create closeness. Their time together includes sex, walks, meals, and bickering, yet they struggle to bond and avoid seeing each other as whole people. The story also unfolds through Book, a seemingly sentient object Isabel buys at a signing. Book has its own voice, origin story, and cosmology, and as it is handed to Isabel, it feels like a bright, all-consuming connection. Isabel and Book take turns narrating, deepening their relationship into a love letter to books and readers.
"At the centre of Phantom Days is Isabel, a woman in her mid-30s. She's child-free, single, unambitious and working the same arts job she's had for a decade. She has a few close friends and a loving but complex relationship with her mother, Maggie, who is recovering from chemotherapy. Though her mother thinks she's going nowhere, Isabel is outwardly content with her life. But something is missing. If I were to create a thing outside of myself, what would it be? she asks herself."
"This gap leads Isabel to fly from Sydney to London with her new boyfriend, Lewis, a man she barely knows but to whom she feels a strange pull. In London, they have sex, walk along the river, visit restaurants. But they struggle to bond. They eat in silence or bicker. They avoid eye contact when they're together, as though craving solitude. They fail to see one another as whole people."
"Following a tradition of it-narratives stories that follow the fortunes of an inanimate object Phantom Days unfolds partly through the eyes of Book, a seemingly sentient object whom Isabel bought from its author at a book signing before her trip. Book has its own voice, origin story, cosmology; In the beginning, it says, the sky was yellow and did not change for years on end. As Book is handed from its author to Isabel, it feels a bright and all-consuming connection; Isabel brings colour, life and meaning."
"In some ways, this is a story about love. Not just human love, but also a love letter to books and to readers. As Isabel and Book take turns narrating Isabel's story to one another, the relationship between them becomes deep and"
Read at www.theguardian.com
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