No More Empty Spaces: A Novel

by D.J. Green

Overview

It’s 1973 and Will Ross, a divorced American geologist, has signed on to work on a troubled dam in a remote, rugged part of Turkey. He decides to take his children with him, but they think they’re only going for their usual two-week stint of shared custody, not to live there. Once in Turkey, Will struggles for control—of his family, his work, the landscape the dam is to be built on, and, ultimately, himself. Alongside these emotional conflicts, he, his children, and everyone else involved in the dam face powerful external forces—of erosion, dissolution, landslides, and earthquakes. Whether they let themselves see it or not, natural hazards impact their lives every day. And so do their intractable human natures. Science can help them understand those forces and engineering can help control them, but each character gradually comes to realize that the landscape they stand upon, and the landscapes of their lives, will shift and shake regardless of the choices they make. The question, then, is: how will they respond?

Timely and gripping, No More Empty Spaces will make you think about how you relate to yourself, your family, and the Earth and its ever-changing processes.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781647426163
Publisher:	She Writes Press
Publication date:	04/09/2024
Pages:	320
Product dimensions:	5.50(w) x 8.50(h) x 1.10(d)

About the Author

D. J. Green is a writer, geologist, and sailor. No More Empty Spaces is her first novel. She lives near the Sandia Mountains in Placitas, New Mexico, and cruises the Salish Sea on her sailboat during the summers.

Editorial Reviews

2024 International Book Awards Winner in Best New Fiction
2024 Next Generation Indie Book Awards Winner in General Fiction/Novel (70,000 to 100,000 Words)

“No More Empty Spaces takes us on a surprising twist-filled journey into not only a remote area of Turkey, but the remote places of the human heart. The protagonist, a geologist hired to work on a dangerous dam, must also confront his own dangerous behaviors. Redemption lies in mindful care of self, family, and planet. Indeed, that is the hard work all the characters confront, leading them—and the reader—to fresh ideas about how to fill the empty spaces within us all.”
—Laura Pritchett, winner of the PEN USA Award for Fiction

“Green’s prose is tender and keenly observant . . . . A fascinating and frequently moving novel of family and geology.”
—Kirkus Reviews

“ . . . impressed the hell out of this reader.No More Empty Spacesis a rich and rewarding read, a novel to savor, like a steaming cup of Turkish coffee.”
—Sharon Oard Warner, author of Writing the Novella

“No More Empty Spaces is an excellent debut—straightforward and yet deceptively complex as it situates its multilayered narratives between the competing forces of nature, both human and geological, over time. Green’s depictions of the rugged and earthquake-prone Anatolian Mountain region of Turkey evoke a dangerously shifting landscape every bit as unstable and unpredictable as the broken American family that seeks to heal itself there.”
—James Anderson, author of The Never-Open Desert Diner and Lullaby Road

“Love is never simple. If we do it right, it costs everything. This sensitive, probing novel made me rethink what it means to have mastery: in a discipline; in a relationship; ultimately, over our own flawed selves. These characters battle it out and emerge transformed, learning to trust one another to fill the cracks and empty spaces life doles out. The rich science and evocative landscapes drew me in, but I stayed for the Ross family. I’m glad I did.”
—Summer Wood, author of Arroyo and Raising Wrecker

“No More Empty Spaces is a wonderful read, with some of the best prose I’ve seen regarding the intractable forces of nature. This struggling blended family faces every kind of overwhelming challenge, from love to liquor to the great dam at Kayakale in Turkey. The book made me want to go there and see this extraordinary landscape for myself!”
—A. R. Taylor, author of Jenna Takes the Fall and Call Me When You’re Dead

“When Will Ross is hired to assess a dam in a remote region of Turkey, he brings his three reluctant children to live at the edge of the failing project. No More Empty Spaces is a generous and large-hearted portrayal of a family in precarity and a nuanced exploration of the tradeoffs we make to protect the people we love against forces natural and man-made. These characters are as complex and layered as the geology Will Ross is studying. A beautiful, deeply-felt, and transporting debut.”
—Kirstin Valdez Quade, author of The Five Wounds and Night at the Fiestas

“D. J. Green skillfully intertwines a story of what lies below: the earth with its complex geology and a man’s emotions, also buried deeply, each affected by history and environment. In No More Empty Spaces, Green takes us to the world of Turkey where Will, an engineering geologist, moves his family while he seeks to investigate a problematic dam structure, along with unexpected challenges to his beliefs about family and integrity. Green’s debut is both masterful and engaging.”
—Sharon Bippus, author of This Blue Earth

“D. J. Green is that rare writer who takes us inside worlds we may never be able to experience firsthand.”
—Will Mackin, author of Bring Out the Dog

“In Green’s poignant debut novel, the drama of rocks beautifully parallels the unfolding emotional drama, and the dam is both a fully rendered physical entity and a powerful metaphor. The story of the Ross family feels so real, and so engaging, I rooted for all of them until the deeply satisfying ending. No More Empty Spaces is a riveting and thought-provoking page-turner about love, commitment, growth, and adapting to change. I loved it.”
—Kate Christensen, author of Welcome Home, Stranger

From the Publisher

2023-11-20
In Green’s debut novel, a geologist seeks fulfillment at a dam site in Turkey.

In Turkey, 1973, American geologist Will Ross has come to the remote village of Kayakale, where a vast dam is being built to harness the hydroelectric power of the mighty Euphrates. As the project’s chief foundation geologist, Will must “read the story in the rocks” beneath the dam—a story that, so far, has been giving the engineers nightmares. Will planned to come alone, but a last-minute complication (involving his ex-wife’s alcoholism) requires Will to bring his three children—15-year-old Kevin, 12-year-old Rob, and 4-year-old Didi—along with him for the remainder of the project. The children are not happy to have their lives uprooted from suburban New Jersey and dropped into a compound in the middle of the Turkish wilderness. The lone bright spot is the presence of Paula, a peppy young teacher from West Virginia who offers Will and the kids some kindness as they acclimate to their new surroundings. The whole project is put on pause until Will can figure out the cause of the mysterious voids that exist in the rock beneath the site, threatening the dam’s stability. The problem turns out to be larger and stranger than Will anticipated, and it may require more than mere scientific know-how to fix, even as his family’s situation teeters as precariously as the ground beneath his feet. Green’s prose is tender and keenly observant: “They ambled up to the base of a tower of tuff where ocher striations crisscrossed pure white rock, as if a painter had stroked a brush across it. The light moved over it as the sun rose, making the lines dance on the rock’s surface.” In the wonders of subterranean rock formations, Green finds an apt metaphor for Will’s unplumbed psyche, painting a portrait of a man desperate to keep his life from being crushed beneath the pressure of life’s obligations.

A fascinating and frequently moving novel of family and geology.

Kirkus Reviews