National Book Award finalist Howard Norman delivers another âprovocative . . . hauntingâ* novel, this time set in a Vermont village and featuring a missing child, a newly married private detective, and a highly relatable ghost.
*Janet Maslin, New York Times
Simon Inescort is no longer bodily present in his marriage. Itâs been several months since he keeled over the rail of a Nova Scotiaâbound ferry, a massive heart attack to blame. Simon's widow, Lorca Pell, has sold their farmhouse to newlyweds Zachary and Murielâafter revealing that the deed contains a âghost clause,â 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: âEvery waking moment, I'm astonished I have any consciousness . . . What am I to call myself now, a revenant?â 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.Â
The Ghost Clause is a heartrending, affirming portrait of two marriagesâone in its afterlife, one new and erotically chargedâand of the Vermont village life that sustains and remakes them.
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