{"product_id":"a-thing-is-only-known-when-it-is-gone-9780299348946","title":"A Thing Is Only Known When It Is Gone","description":"Flowers bloom from the body of a man after his lover's touch. Grieving parents find a way to communicate with their lost children. A teacher with water in his veins is held accountable when the extracurricular club he advises goes rogue. In these and other fantastical stories, Joe Baumann explores relationships, mostly queer, through the lens of the bizarre. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e The stories in \u003ci\u003eA Thing Is Only Known When It Is Gone\u003c\/i\u003e are told in lyrical, often startling prose. Baumann's experimentation with the surreal avoids gimmick and easy metaphor, keeping the complexity of the characters at the center. The strange worlds of these protagonists distort and reflect our own back to us, like the funhouse mirrors in \"Morphology\" that begin to change the fabric of reality. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e Ultimately, we may not want to live in a world in which our broken hearts are on display in external birdcages attached to our bodies. But Baumann's sophisticated, nuanced storytelling makes us wonder, however briefly, whether such a world might be preferable to ours. The emotional poignancy at the heart of each of these stories reaches across the strangeness of all of our possible worlds, tying us together in the universal search for connection.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eBinding Type:\u003c\/b\u003e Paperback\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublisher:\u003c\/b\u003e University of Wisconsin Press\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublished:\u003c\/b\u003e 03\/18\/2025\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eISBN:\u003c\/b\u003e 9780299348946\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePages:\u003c\/b\u003e 224\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eWeight:\u003c\/b\u003e 1.00lbs","brand":"Joe Baumann","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":45302252077237,"sku":"9780299348946","price":16.11,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0473\/0804\/6492\/files\/img_fc009cde-95fe-42c2-aa41-d8b666793ff8.jpg?v=1744724797","url":"https:\/\/pastforward.org\/products\/a-thing-is-only-known-when-it-is-gone-9780299348946","provider":"Past Forward","version":"1.0","type":"link"}