Publisher's Synopsis
Shortlisted for the 2020 Baillie Gifford Prize, A Pick of the Autumn 2020 in The Times, Sunday Times, Observer And The Guardian London, 1938. Alma Fielding, an ordinary young woman, begins to experience supernatural events in her suburban home. Nandor Fodor - a Jewish-Hungarian refugee and chief ghost hunter for the International Institute for Psychical research - begins to investigate. In doing so he discovers a different and darker type of haunting: trauma, alienation, loss - and the foreshadowing of a nation's worst fears. As the spectre of Fascism lengthens over Europe, and as Fodor's obsession with the case deepens, Alma becomes ever more disturbed. With rigour, daring and insight, the award-winning pioneer of historical narrative non-fiction Kate Summerscale shadows Fodor's enquiry, delving into long-hidden archives to find the human story behind a very modern haunting. "A page-turner with the authority of history" PHILIPPA GREGORY "As gripping as a novel. An engaging, unsettling, deeply satisfying read" SARAH WATERS "A wonderful book about the world of mediums" HILARY MANTEL
