Kirkus Review of Before Being — A Metaphysical Inquiry into Nothingness, Becoming, and the Mystery of Being Human
I am grateful to share that Kirkus Reviews has reviewed Before Being: A Metaphysical Inquiry into Nothingness, Becoming, and the Mystery of Being Human and given it its “GET IT” verdict.
Kirkus described the book as:
“A deeply academic and satisfying philosophical inquiry that tackles some of life’s biggest questions.”
That is what I hoped the book would be: a serious inquiry into the most basic question philosophy can ask — why there is something rather than nothing.
Before Being begins with absolute nothingness, not as a metaphor, not as emptiness within a world, and not as a physical vacuum, but as the strict absence of everything: no space, no time, no law, no potential, no observer, no hidden field waiting to become real. From there, the book asks whether such nothingness could ever have held, and what follows if it could not.
The review recognized the demanding nature of the project, calling it “a challenging work that seems to promise readers that some of the universe’s secrets may be hiding in its pages.” This is not a quick answer to an ancient question, nor a popular simplification of existence. It is a careful metaphysical inquiry into the possibility that nothingness itself is unstable, and that being is not merely a fact we find ourselves inside, but something whose presence calls for deeper reflection.
The review also captures the human reach of the book. The question of nothingness is not only an abstract puzzle. It leads back into existence, consciousness, mortality, love, and the mystery of what it means to be human. If nothingness could not hold, then the fact that there is a world — and that there are beings within it who can ask why — becomes more than a background condition. It becomes the beginning of wonder.
I am especially grateful that Kirkus found it “refreshing to encounter a work of philosophy that is so deeply academic yet also concerned with readability.” That balance is central to the book. Before Being asks readers to slow down, think carefully, and remain with a difficult question without reducing it too quickly to science, theology, or ordinary intuition. It does not try to remove the mystery of existence. It tries to approach that mystery with discipline.
You can read the full review here:
https://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/don-howard/before-being/
eBook Editions
Available on Apple Books, Kobo, Barnes & Noble (Nook), Everand, and other major ebook retailers.
[Find the eBook on Apple, Kobo, B&N & More →] https://books2read.com/u/4EYp5z
Print Editions
Available on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and Bookshop.org, and through independent bookstores and libraries worldwide.
Amazon paperback:
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0FR2M3CRB
Thank you to all readers who have spent time with this inquiry and with the question from which it begins.
— Don