This Vital Absence

This Vital Absence

Regular price
$25.95
Sale price
$25.95
Regular price
Sold out
Unit price
per 
Shipping calculated at checkout.

By Sophia Veltfort

A woman looking for her father, an anonymous sperm donor, believes she’s found him in a disgraced anesthesiologist who denies paternity but with whom she becomes increasingly entangled.

Publication Date: November 10, 2026

Paperback ISBN: 9781646054480
eBook ISBN: 9781646054497

Description

All her life, Sylvia has wanted to know her father. As the daughter of two mothers, all she knows of her biological father is that he’s an anonymous sperm donor. When she moves back to New York City following a postgraduate scholarship in the UK, a dossier from her moms gives her a new lead: Dean, a disgraced anesthesiologist who may bear some responsibility in the death of a pop star. At the same time, Sylvia meets Molly, a woman with her own family mysteries, with whom Sylvia makes a deal: They will help each other in the search for each other’s biological families. As Sylvia and Dean get to know each other over Facebook messages and then in person, they ask more of each other in a series of narrative games that ultimately leave Sylvia and Molly reeling and faced with a choice about the kind of stories in which they are willing to participate.

Biographical Note
Sophia Veltfort grew up in New York City with her two moms, three cats, and four avocado plants. Her fiction has appeared in Prairie SchoonerWriter’s Digest online (first place, Annual Writing Competition), the Santa Monica ReviewNarrative online (30 Below Contest finalist), the Chicago Tribune online (Nelson Algren finalist), Alaska Quarterly Review, and elsewhere. Her nonfiction has appeared in Harvard Review and been selected as a Notable Essay in the Best American Essays. After graduating from Yale, she studied on a Marshall Scholarship at Oxford and the University of East Anglia, then completed a Joint MFA / PhD at Cornell. She currently teaches creative writing at Yale.