The Layers is the debut novel from Stephen
Reynolds, exploring how our identity is shaped by our relationships. The
anonymous protagonist recounts his life story, showing us how the people he has
loved – his parents, sister, grandfather, best friend, and partner – have all
helped to form who he is. He is a different version of himself with each loved
one, versions which combine to make up a whole person. However, as the book
goes on and the protagonist starts to lose grip of people around him, he begins
to wonder who he really is without them. Are the various versions of himself
lost with those who knew them, or can he remain whole in spite of their loss?
Struggling with overwhelming grief and its consequential identity crisis, he
teeters on the edge of fading away completely. Can he find a way to pull those
lost pieces of himself back together, or is he forever lost to the void?
Stephen started writing The Layers after losing someone close to him and considering
whether a version of himself had also been lost. “I think The Layers is important because it sets out to de-normalise loss,”
he says. “We’ll all experience grief and death in our lifetimes. The Layers shouts about that. It seeks
to confront it but offers no suggestion of peace through doing so.” But the
novel isn’t all doom and gloom. It highlights the joy and beauty of our most
important relationships, and the imprints they leave behind even after they are
gone. It is a life-affirming look at how we are reborn through our losses to
truly appreciate the connections we have had and those which remain. It is a
love story dedicated to all of our quirks, our eccentricities, our nuances, our
layers.