A Thing Is Only Known When It Is Gone

Joe Baumann

ISBN 10: 0299348946 / ISBN 13: 9780299348946

Published by University of Wisconsin Press, US, 2025

About this Item

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.  The stories in A Thing Is Only Known When It Is Gone 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. 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.

Seller Inventory # LU-9780299348946

Bibliographic Details

• Title: A Thing Is Only Known When It Is Gone
• Publisher: University of Wisconsin Press, US
• Publication Date: 2025
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0299348946
• ISBN 13: 9780299348946
• Binding: Paperback
• Condition: New
• Weight: 454 grams

About this title

Synopsis

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. 

The stories in A Thing Is Only Known When It Is Gone 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.

Ultimately, we may not want to live in a world in which our broken hearts are on display in external cages. But Baumann’s sophisticated, nuanced storytelling makes us wonder, however briefly, whether such a world might be preferable to ours.

About the Author

Joe Baumann is the chair of the MFA in Writing program at Lindenwood University. He is the author of Lake, Drive: A Novel, Where Can I Take You When There’s Nowhere to Go, and Tell Me: Stories.