Hi, this is Libby Owens, and you're listening to the award-winning podcast, Moms Don't Have Time to Read Books.

I'm also the host of Moms Don't Have Time to Lose Weight, and I'm the editor of the anthology,

which you should run out and buy called Moms Don't Have Time to, a quarantine anthology.

All proceeds of that book go to COVID-19 vaccine research.

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Okay, now back to this amazing podcast.

Ruth Ozekiel is the author of The Book of Form and Emptiness. She's a novelist filmmaker and Zen Buddhist priest. She's the

award-winning author of three novels, including My Year of Meats, All Over Creation, and a Tale for

the Time Being, which was a finalist for the 2013 Booker Prize. Her nonfiction work includes a memoir,

the face, a time coat, and the documentary film, Having the Bones. She is affiliated with the

Every Days End Foundation and teaches creative writing at Smith College, where she is a Grace, Jarko, Ross,

1933, Professor of Humanities. Welcome, Ruth. Thank you so much for coming on Mom's Don't

Have Time to Read Books to discuss the Book of Form and Emptiness. Thank you so much. It's wonderful to be

here. What a powerful, amazing read this was. Oh my gosh. So cool on so many different levels,

like so meta. So it just so it was awesome. Thank you.

Well, you tell listeners what your book is about and then I'll dive into my written.

Sure, sure. Yes. Well, it tells the story of a young boy named Benny O. And when Benny is 12 years

old, his father dies in a, you know, tragic and really kind of avoidable and stupid accident,

automobile accident. He's actually run over by a truck. And Benny witnesses this,

...