THE VOID
How I Learned to Live Again After Losing the Only Person Who Never Left
At nine years old, Martel Matthews watched his mother — the one person who never left him — slowly begin to leave. An ALS diagnosis turned a fourth grader into a caretaker: the cane, then the walker, then the scooter, then a boy carrying more than any child should carry, with no other adult to lean on.
The Void is the memoir of what happens after — the numbness, the drive to keep building anyway, and the long, quiet work of learning to feel again. It’s a rare, unguarded look at grief through the eyes of a Black man who turned loss into purpose, and it’s for anyone who has ever had to grow up too fast, love someone who was leaving, or find their way back to themselves after the person who held them together was gone.
This isn’t a book about moving on. It’s about making room — for grief, for healing, and for hope as a daily practice.
Preorder your copy today! Available August 24, 2026.
