At Lit Hub she tagged seven "stories that start with what might feel like an absence but turn into something else entirely." One title on the list:
Helen DeWitt, The Last SamuraiRead about the other entries on the list.
Reader, meet Ludo. He is the star of Helen DeWitt’s masterpiece and the most delightfully precocious young child you will encounter in literature. He’s sort of a genius, a voracious reader with a knack for learning new languages. There’s nothing he can’t learn… except for the identity of his dad. As a substitute father-figure, his mother just keeps playing the movie The Last Samurai, which is both a hilarious and brilliant response to the kid’s one question. Unfortunately, it doesn’t suffice forever. So begins the 482-page journey detailing Ludo testing the men he might deem fit to be his father.
--Marshal Zeringue
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