Empty See: A Novella

Empty See is a first-person fictional narrative by an expatriated American photographer named Charles Locar. After years of isolation in a foreign city, Charles returns from abroad to his hometown of Duluth, Minnesota as part of an orientation for a job with a magazine. Reuniting with his strange sister, dealing with an eccentric new boss, and an unlikely friend shed light onto the circumstances of his departure, his inner struggles, and his possible future as an expatriate.

Throughout the story are periodic flashbacks to the unnamed country where he lives—half transcendent refuge, half nightmare. While in Duluth, Charles's sense of isolation and loneliness are exacerbated by everyone he meets. He is haunted not only by his own lack of identity, but by his dysfunctional family history. The sudden shift back to his hometown triggers a series of reminiscences, which he narrates to a teenage girl: his sister's boyfriend's daughter. She is a disillusioned girl who, through a semi-conscious seduction, becomes the only person Charles can trust.