His coping strategies involve skipping school to hide in the public library, wearing noise-cancelling headphones, and obsessively tidying to keep the objects from shouting too loudly. His whole world has transformed from quiet orderliness into noisy chaos. Even the food in their fridge whines to him. His dad’s ashes talk to him softly from their box. Benny stabs himself with scissors at school because the scissors command him to. As a response to the trauma, Benny begins hearing the voices of objects around him, all of which have their own journeys that have brought them to where they lie now. The world that Benny and Annabelle live in is fractured and constantly shifting. It is noted throughout that every character is the protagonist of their own story, and each book is told, read and interpreted in a multitude of ways. The book also references the mythology behind the world Ozeki has created, where books tell the stories themselves and carry this knowledge through centuries. Benny expresses shock at the details he's unaware of the book reminds him that all the information is pertinent to him as the central character of this particular novel. The voice of the omniscient narrator in this instance is the book itself, which at the beginning of each chapter and throughout, comments on the way Benny’s story is being told.
Benny becomes the protagonist of our version of the story, interspersed with Benny’s snippets of commentary on the way his life is being narrated. Kenji leaves behind him a trail of trauma, which manifests in conflicting ways in the household he has left behind.
The story begins with the death of Kenji Oh, a tragicomic accident that leaves his widow, Annabelle, and their son, Benny, stunned.
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