The Ghost Variations
One Hundred Stories
New York : Pantheon Books, [2021]
Format: Book
Edition: First edition.
Description: 267 pages : illustrations ; 21 cm
"The author of the acclaimed novel The Brief History of the Dead now gives us one hundred funny, poignant, scary, and thought-provoking ghost stories that explore all aspects of the afterlife. A spirit who appears in a law firm reliving the exact moment she lost her chance at love, a man haunted by the trees cut down to build his house, nefarious specters that snatch anyone who steps into the shadows in which they live, and parakeets that serve as mouthpieces for the dead--these are just a few of the characters Kevin Brockmeier presents in this extraordinary compendium of spectral emanations and their wildly various purposes in (after) life. These tales are by turns playful, chilling, and philosophical, paying homage to the genre while audaciously subverting expectations. The ghosts in these pages are certain to haunt you well after you've closed the book"-- Provided by publisher.
Contents:
GHOSTS AND MEMORY. A notable social event ; The guidance counselor ; A hatchet, several candlesticks, a pincushion, and a top hat; Milo Krain ; Amnesia ; A long chain of yesterdays -- GHOSTS AND FORTUNE. The hitchhiker ; Wishes ; how to play ; The scales of furtune ; A moment, however small ; A gathering ; Mira Amsler -- GHOSTS AND NATURE. Elephants ; The white mare ; Many additional animals ; Bees ; A blight on the landscape ; An ossuary of trees ; Things that fall from the sky ; A story with a drum beating inside it ; The sandbox initiative ; Renewable resources -- GHOSTS AND TIME. Thirteen visitations ; The Office of Hereafters and Dissolutions ; An obituary ; The midpoint ; The whirl of time ; Minnows ; A story swaying back and forth ; A time-travel story with a little romance and a happy ending -- GHOSTS AND SPECULATION. The phantasm vs. the statue -- Footprints -- Passengers -- New life, new civilizations ; A blackness went fluttering by ; The prism ; His womanhood ; There are people, they had lives ; The soldiers of the 115th regiment -- GHOSTS AND VISION. Action! ; The way the ring of a moat becomes comforting to a fish ; Spectrum ; Every house key, every fire hydrant, every electrical outlet ; The walls ; Playtime ; All his life ; Take it with me ; A story seen in glimpses through the mist --
GHOSTS AND THE OTHER SENSES. A lifetime of touch ; The runner-up ; So many songs ; A matter of acoustics ; Bouquet ; The mud odor of the snow melting in the fields ; Instrumentology ; When the room is quiet, the daylight almost gone ; A sort of fellow ; A lesser feeling -- GHOSTS AND BELIEF. A small disruption of reality ; The abnormalist and the usualist ; Real estate ; Which are the crystals, which the solution ; Countless strange couplings and separations ; Rapture ; 666 -- GHOSTS AND LOVE AND FRIENDSHIP. Lost and found ; Another man in a mirror ; The apostrophes ; A man in a mirror ; Turnstiles ; A true story ; Bullets and what it takes to dodge them ; Knees ; The man she is trying to forget ; The eternities ; Too late ; Detention ; I like your shoes -- GHOSTS AND FAMILY. The ghost's disguise ; A source of confusion ; Unseeable, untouchable ; Ghost brothers ; A second true story ; A life ; Extraordinary gifts ; An inherited disorder ; Prayer from an airport terminal ; Hatching ; Bilateral symmetry -- GHOSTS AND WORDS AND NUMBERS. Parakeets ; Euphemisms ; Roughly eighty grams ; The ghost letter ; A matter of linguistics ; Dusk and other stories ; Telephone ; Numbers ; The census ; The most terrifying ghost story ever written.
GHOSTS AND THE OTHER SENSES. A lifetime of touch ; The runner-up ; So many songs ; A matter of acoustics ; Bouquet ; The mud odor of the snow melting in the fields ; Instrumentology ; When the room is quiet, the daylight almost gone ; A sort of fellow ; A lesser feeling -- GHOSTS AND BELIEF. A small disruption of reality ; The abnormalist and the usualist ; Real estate ; Which are the crystals, which the solution ; Countless strange couplings and separations ; Rapture ; 666 -- GHOSTS AND LOVE AND FRIENDSHIP. Lost and found ; Another man in a mirror ; The apostrophes ; A man in a mirror ; Turnstiles ; A true story ; Bullets and what it takes to dodge them ; Knees ; The man she is trying to forget ; The eternities ; Too late ; Detention ; I like your shoes -- GHOSTS AND FAMILY. The ghost's disguise ; A source of confusion ; Unseeable, untouchable ; Ghost brothers ; A second true story ; A life ; Extraordinary gifts ; An inherited disorder ; Prayer from an airport terminal ; Hatching ; Bilateral symmetry -- GHOSTS AND WORDS AND NUMBERS. Parakeets ; Euphemisms ; Roughly eighty grams ; The ghost letter ; A matter of linguistics ; Dusk and other stories ; Telephone ; Numbers ; The census ; The most terrifying ghost story ever written.
ISBN:
9781524748838
Availability | |||
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Call Number | Location | Shelf Location | Status |
F Brockmeier | Cooper (Forest Acres) | Fiction | In |