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The Ghost Clause Audiobook
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Publisher Description
National Book Award Finalist Howard Norman delivers another provocative, haunting novel, this time set in a Vermont village and featuring a missing child, a newly married private detective, and a highly relatable ghost.
Simon Inescort is no longer bodily present in his marriage. It’s been several months since he keeled over the rail of a Nova Scotia–bound ferry, a massive heart attack to blame. Simon’s widow, Lorca Pell, has sold their farmhouse to newlyweds Zachary and Muriel—after revealing that the deed contains a “ghost clause,” an actual legal clause, not unheard of in Vermont, allowing for reimbursement if a recently purchased home turns out to be haunted.
In fact, Simon finds himself still at home: “Every waking moment, I’m astonished I have any consciousness … What am I to call myself now, a revenant?” He spends time replaying his marriage in his own mind, as if in poignant reel-to-reel, while also engaging in occasionally intimate observation of the new homeowners. But soon the crisis of a missing child, a local eleven-year-old, threatens the tenuous domestic equilibrium, as the weight of the case falls to Zachary, a rookie private detective with the Green Mountain Agency.
The Ghost Clause is a heartrending, affirming portrait of two marriages—one in its afterlife, one new and erotically charged—and of the Vermont village life that sustains and remakes them.
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“Narrator Jim Meskimen keeps all the themes and characters in balance, so when we realize that the real subject of the novel is an exploration of love in its many forms, we are pleased and satisfied. He also conveys the strong love of central Vermont that has drawn the various characters together in a setting that is very nearly a character itself.”
— AudioFile
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“Howard Norman, who has always stood admirably apart, has reinvented the ghost story; in the process he has crafted a novel not only suspenseful but elegiac, consoling, and wholly absorbing.”
— Jhumpa Lahiri, New York Times bestselling author -
“In his ever-exquisite, lapidary prose, Howard Norman shows us in The Ghost Clause how we might best cherish our time…This is a lovely novel indeed.”
— Chang-Rae Lee, New York Times bestselling author -
“The Ghost Clause is a meditation on many kinds of mystery, not the least of which is the persistent ongoingness of love.”
— Alice McDermott, National Book Award–winning author -
“A heart-wrenching story of endings and grief but also of new beginnings.”
— BookReporter -
“Norman poignantly examines the trajectory of two marriages from the viewpoint of a dead writer…This is an astute, beautifully written novel.”
— Publishers Weekly -
“Thoughtful, elegiac, a good book to read by the fireside with a snifter of bourbon.”
— Library Journal -
“A paean to married love, creative endeavors, and compassion, and a delving look at love, loss, memory, and the afterlife…Norman’s atmospheric, wise, and witty novel has the radiance, hiss, and snap of a hearth fire on a wintry night.”
— Booklist -
“What opens as a ghost story turns out to be something of a love story instead…[Norman} still has a knack for finding emotional resonances in muted, unlikely scenarios.”
— Kirkus Reviews
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About Howard Norman
Howard Norman is a three-time winner of National Endowment for the Arts fellowships and a winner of the Lannan Award for fiction. His novels The Northern Lights and The Bird Artist were nominated for the National Book Award. His books have been translated into twelve languages. He divides his time between East Calais, Vermont, and Washington, DC.
About Jim Meskimen
Jim Meskimen is a stage, film, and television actor who has appeared in many well-known movies and television shows. He acted in Apollo 13 and Frost/Nixon for director Ron Howard, both of which were nominated for Best Picture Oscars. His television appearances include The Fresh Prince of Bel Air, Friends, Lie to Me, Criminal Minds, and Parks and Recreation. He is also a painter, award-winning audiobook narrator, and audiobook director for Galaxy Audio.