After the death of his father, fourteen-year-old Benny Oh begins to hear voices. The voices belong to things in his house - a sneaker, a broken Christmas ornament, a piece of wilted lettuce. Soon the voices follow him outside the house, driving him to seek refuge in a large public library, where objects know to speak in whispers. There, Benny discovers a strange new world, where 'things happen'. A brilliantly inventive novel about loss and our relationship with things.