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Your Absence Is Darkness - Jón Kalman Stefánsson

Your Absence Is Darkness - Jón Kalman Stefánsson

A man comes to awareness in a cold church in the Icelandic countryside, not knowing who he is, why he's there or how he arrived, with a stranger staring mockingly from a few pews back. Startled by the man's cryptic questions, he leaves--and plunges into a history spanning centuries, a past pressed into his genes that sinks him closer to some knowledge of himself. A city girl is drawn to the fjords by the memory of a blue-eyed gaze, and a generation earlier, a farmer's wife writes an essay about earthworms that changes the course of lives. A pastor who writes letters to dead poets falls in love with a faraway stranger, and a rock musician, plagued by cosmic loneliness, discovers that his past has been a lie. Faced with the violence of fate and the effects of choices, made and avoided, that cascade between them, each discovers the cost of following the magnetic needle of the heart....Your Absence Is Darkness is a comedy about mortality, music, and the strange salve of time, and a spellbinding saga of death, desire, and the perfect agony of star-crossed love.


View Booking Instructions

You must have a valid Coquitlam Public Library card to reserve your book club set. The card used to pick up the book club set must match the card used to make the reservation. Reservations can be made a minimum of 7 days before the pickup date and a maximum of 1 year in advance.

  1. Use the booking grid below to click on your preferred pickup date OR click on the “Go To Date” button to select a date using the calendar. Green spaces indicate item availability.
    • The return date will be set automatically.
  2. Click the white “Add to Cart & Checkout” button.
    • If you clicked on the blue “Add to Cart” button, you will need to scroll to top of page and click on the green “1 item / Checkout” button to complete your booking.
  3. Fill out the booking form.
  4. Check the Terms & Conditions box.
  5. Click on “Submit my Booking” button.
    • IMPORTANT: The software only allows you to add to cart and check out ONE ITEM at a time. Repeat steps 1-5 for additional reservations.

You will receive an email notification when your reservation has been approved.

  • Your Book Club Set will be ready on your selected pickup date. Your 7-week loan begins on your selected pickup date. No renewals permitted.
  • Book Clubs must check out a complete set (12 copies); all copies must be returned at the same time by the due date.
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