{"product_id":"9780544987296","title":"The Ghost Clause","description":"\u003cstrong\u003eThe Ghost Clause\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAuthor(s): Howard Norman\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eNational 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\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e (*Janet Maslin, \u003cem\u003eNew York Times\u003c\/em\u003e)\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eSimon 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.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e 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. \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cem\u003eThe Ghost Clause\u003c\/em\u003e 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. \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eReview(s):\u003cbr\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e\"\u003c\/strong\u003eHoward 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\u003cstrong\u003e.\"  —Jhumpa Lahiri, author of \u003cem\u003eInterpreter of Maladies\u003c\/em\u003e and \u003cem\u003eLowland\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e     \"In his ever-exquisite, lapidary prose, Howard Norman shows us in \u003cem\u003eThe Ghost Clause\u003c\/em\u003e how we might best cherish our time, whether in this life or the next: through our restive, earthly passions, to the  heart-song of language; and by our deep devotions to other beings. This is a lovely novel indeed.\"\u003cstrong\u003e   —Chang-Rae Lee, author of \u003cem\u003eNative Speaker\u003c\/em\u003e and \u003cem\u003eOn a Full Sea\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e   \"Who better than a dead novelist to narrative this tale of married life, a missing child, and a Vermont farmhouse ripe for the haunting?\u003cem\u003e The Ghost Clause \u003c\/em\u003eis a meditation on many kinds of mystery, not the least of which is the persistent \u003cem\u003eongoingness\u003c\/em\u003e of love.\" \u003cstrong\u003e—Alice McDermott, author of \u003cem\u003eCharming Billy\u003c\/em\u003e and \u003cem\u003eThe Ninth Hour\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e  \u003cem\u003e\"...\u003c\/em\u003ehe has a keen eye for the way loss uneasily sticks with those left behind. What opens as a ghost story turns out to be something of a love story instead...he still has a knack for finding emotional resonances in muted, unlikely scenarios.\" \u003cstrong\u003e—\u003cem\u003eKirkus \u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e  \u003cem\u003e\"\u003c\/em\u003eThis is an astute, beautifully written novel.\" \u003cstrong\u003e\u003cem\u003e—Publishers Weekly\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e  \u003cem\u003e\"\u003c\/em\u003eThoughtful, elegiac, a good book to read by the fireside with a snifter of bourbon.\" \u003cstrong\u003e\u003cem\u003e—\u003c\/em\u003eRobert E. Brown, \u003cem\u003eLibrary Journal\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eISBN:  9780544987296\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e ","brand":"Mariner Books","offers":[{"title":"Hardback","offer_id":41168202170574,"sku":"9780544987296","price":27.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0600\/7029\/7806\/products\/9780544987296_e690a224-ef51-47ad-b6e4-098e8f0e03c0.jpg?v=1652152096","url":"https:\/\/pickwickbookshop.com\/products\/9780544987296","provider":"Pickwick Bookshop","version":"1.0","type":"link"}