The Presence of Absence: On Prayers and an Epiphany

Named a ＂Reader’s Choice＂ for 1998 by The Boston Globe

When she was twenty-seven, Doris Grumbach was visited by what she recognized as the presence of God. For a woman with no religious education or faith, the event was as unexpected as it was joyful. It was also never repeated. In The Presence of Absence, Grumbach recollects her quest to recover the sense of God’s presence through formal worship, private devotion, and the study of literary accounts of epiphany. Her account is a moving and inspiring journey through ＂spiritual radiance,＂ faith, and love.

Doris Grumbach is author of Coming into the End Zone, Extra Innings, Fifty Days of Solitude, Life in a Day, and six novels. She has been literary editor of The New Republic, a nonfiction columnist for The New York Times Book Review, and a book reviewer for National Public Radio. She lives in Maine.