The premise is simple, but the story quickly becomes surreal: the
narrator's husband leaves to buy a loaf of bread and never returns.
Searching for him day and night, forced to explain his absence to
friends and family, the unnamed narrator withdraws into a mysterious
universe ruled more by image than language. In the wake of her husband's
disappearance, the world becomes a strangely immaterial place,
shapeless, devoid of sentiment. Once-familiar territories become
terrifying: the supermarket, the beach, the bedroom. Even the wedding
album has changed: her husband's face now appears altered in every shot.
An innovative, daring book on the physicality of absence, My Phantom
Husband explores familiar reactions to sudden loss and the disruption
of daily routine. Weaving an intricate web of exquisite metaphors and
mesmerizing visions, Marie Darrieussecq once again astounds readers with
her exceptional imagination and stylistic genius.