The Haunting of Alma Fielding: SHORTLISTED FOR THE BAILLIE GIFFORD PRIZE 2020

Summerscale, Kate

£18.99

London, 1938. In the suburbs of the city, an ordinary young housewife has become the eye in a storm of chaos. In Alma Fielding’s modest home, china flies off the shelves, eggs fly through the air; stolen jewellery appears on her fingers, white mice crawl out of her handbag, beetles appear from under her gloves; in the middle of a car journey, a terrapin materialises on her lap. Nandor Fodor – a Jewish-Hungarian refugee and chief ghost hunter for the International Institute for Psychical Research – reads of the case, and hastens to the scene of the haunting. But when Fodor starts his scrupulous investigation, he discovers that the case is even stranger than it seems. By unravelling Alma’s peculiar history, he finds a different and darker type of haunting: trauma, alienation, loss – and the foreshadowing of a nation’s worst fears.

Available on backorder

Publish Date: 01/10/2020

Description

SHORTLISTED FOR THE 2020 BAILLIE GIFFORD PRIZElonglisted for the ALCS GOLD DAGGER FOR NON-FICTIONA BOOK OF THE YEAR IN THE SUNDAY TIMES, THE TIMES, DAILY TELEGRAPH, i PAPER, NEW STATESMAN, SPECTATOR AND THE SUNDAY EXPRESS ‘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, Open Book, BBC Radio 4London, 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.‘An empathetic, meticulous account of a spiritual unravelling; a tribute to the astonishing power of the human mind – but also a properly absorbing, baffling, satisfying detective story’ AIDA EDEMARIAMA PICK OF THE AUTUMN IN THE TIMES, SUNDAY TIMES, OBSERVER AND THE GUARDIAN

Additional information

Weight 562 g
Dimensions 216 × 135 × 37 mm
Author

Publisher

Imprint

Cover

Hardback

Pages

xiii, 345

Language

English

Edition
Dewey

133.1420942109043 (edition:23)

Readership

General – Trade / Code: K