A crystalline, inventive account of loss from a thrilling young literary talent - and a journey through grief's destructive and creative possibilities.

I tore the arse of my pyjamas one morning, about a year before he died, and my father sewed it up perfect in a few
minutes, just like that. I was looking at them this morning actually, his line of white stitches. It's beautiful really. They've
held.
After the sudden death of his father, Nick Blackburn embarks on a singular, labyrinthine journey to understand his loss.
How do you create an existence when all you can see is a void?
The Reactor is a memoir about absence and creative possibilities, assembled like the pieces of a puzzle. Through
philosophy, music, fashion, psychology, art and film, Blackburn travels a vast panorama of ideas and characters to offer
an entirely new exploration of grief. This is a book about looking for and finding chain reactions and human connection – a
work of enduring fragmentary beauty.