Published 14 February 2024. This is a difficult book to categorize - poetry? Narrative? Essay? It was also difficult to get into as there seems to be no plot. But, there are some beautiful ideas. We have sections which are like a poetic dialogue between an unnamed couple - he says, she says and the language, the ideas are gorgeous ]

in every square inch of your skin I find you completely.

I know my love for you is unlike any love I've felt before because in every centimetre of your body I encounter you wholly.

Then there are sections which are almost like encyclopaedia entries describing all the different types of love - prime mover love, limit love, noise love. These sections I found hard going sometimes. And then there are sections with a narrative about a couple, she is a writer and he is a Latin teacher and they arrive in Venice for a rest. But something is happening in Venice - there seems to be more and more blind people around, St Marks Square is closed because it has become a sort of dead zone where there is no sound or smell. There is also the enigmatic ambassador that the writer encounters. By the end you see all the sections coming together and you understand the references to the statue with no eyes, the nameless bird that flies around, and the Great Blackout that is at the heart of the narrative, and the dialogue between the he says, she says couple. A difficult read, but I'm glad I read it because it was only by coming to the end that I could see where the journey had taken me.