Absence by Raymond Tallis

Absence sees the British medical world through the eyes of Nick Page, a young doctor in free fall into despair due to his failure to seduce the object of his desire. Beneath the comic surface is a serious investigation into human nature and love--its desires, its prejudices, its unhappiness--and the various absences that haunt and intoxicate it.This is a rare book which combines real humor and wit with sustained intellectual inquiry.

RAYMOND TALLIS is Professor of Medicine at the University of Manchester, and has published over 150 research papers, articles and textbooks. He is the author of several highly praised critiques of post-structuralism and well-received explorations of the philosophy of mind. His recent Enemies of Hope brings together the many strands of his thought. The Raymond Tallis reader has recently been published by Macmillan. Professor Tallis has published several volumes of verse and his short stories have been published in leading journals. Absence is his first novel.

Read an article by Raymond Tallis on 'Metaphysics and Gossip'

The central character “reminds one of Hawkeye Pierce from M*A*S*H*. He battles with a sense of self-righteous humour… Tallis enlivens this inquiry into the postmodern situation with healthy doses of humour.”
The Cleveland Plain Dealer

“Tallis’s sense of wonder about the world is so acute that it gives him an astonishing sense of energy…Plato said that the unexamined life is not worth living. So it would seem that most lives are not worth living.”
The Financial Times