A Ghost's Story

A Novel

Lorna Gibb

• Publisher: Granta Books
• Year: 2015
• Subtopic: Literature General
• eBook ISBN:
  9781783780358

"A fascinating story of what it might be like to be a ghost, and the longing in us that makes us want them to exist."— Glasgow Herald, "Books of the Year"
 
Throughout the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, séances and spiritualist meetings grew in popularity. One "ghost" appeared more than any other: the Katie King spirit.
Blending historical fact and fiction, A Ghost's Story presents the mysterious spirit writings and biographical outpourings of Katie King, this famous and enigmatic spirit celebrity. A profound and curious consciousness guided into this realm by the faith of true believers, or the cheap trickery of parlor cheats and exploitative swindlers? Katie King is both, and more. This is the tale of a ghost's quest to understand human faith, loss, and passion. It is also the tale of a contemporary scholar desperate to understand the allure of the spirit world, journeying with Katie from the candle-lit drawing rooms of Victorian London to the Imperial Palaces of Tsars; from the shadiest of gimmicks and tricks, to the most poignant sincerity of the deathbed wish.
A Ghost's Story features a narrator like no other, moving in and out of time and space, obstreperous, witty, and profoundly honest. Above all, this inventive novel is an examination of belief, and a spectacular insight into what lies on the other side.
 
"At turns spooky and comical, Gibb deftly weaves fact with fiction so that each page shimmers ectoplasmically with uncertainty."— Irish Mail
 
"Compelling...add in a supporting cast of rogues, charlatans and true believers and the theatrical trappings of seances and you are pitched in a world that is rich and strange."— Sunday Express

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title Page
• Dedication
• Contents
• PROLOGUE
• A BRIEF INTRODUCTION TO SPIRIT NATURE
• 1. A SÉANCE IN A LOG CABIN
• THE CONTRACT
• A SÉANCE IN A HALL OF ENTERTAINMENT
• A SÉANCE IN REGENT STREET
• LANARK
• A SÉANCE FOR THE CZAR
• A MOCK SÉANCE
• RECONCILING SPIRIT AND FLESH
• I LEARN TO READ
• A SÉANCE IN TWO PLACES
• SEVERAL SÉANCES IN LONDON
• WIDOWER
• FROM HAVANA TO LONDON; HOW I LEARN TO UNRAVEL A MAN WITH A KISS
• THE LAST LONDON SÉANCE OF KATIE KING AND FLORENCE COOK
• A SÉANCE IN A CARNIVAL
• WE ARE BOTH UNDONE BY A KISS
• A SÉANCE TO END ALL
• A SÉANCE IN A NEAPOLITAN SLUM
• WHEN IT IS LEAST EXPECTED
• THE CAMBRIDGE SÉANCES
• THE SCIENTIFIC SÉANCES
• A SÉANCE FOR A BLIND MAN
• SPIRIT WRITING
• EPILOGUE
• ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
• Copyright