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The Haunting of Alma Fielding
SHORTLISTED FOR THE BAILLIE GIFFORD PRIZE 2020
The Haunting of Alma Fielding
SHORTLISTED FOR THE BAILLIE GIFFORD PRIZE 2020
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Description
SHORTLISTED FOR THE 2020 BAILLIE GIFFORD PRIZE
longlisted for the ALCS GOLD DAGGER FOR NON-FICTION
A 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 4
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.
'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 EDEMARIAM
A PICK OF THE AUTUMN IN THE TIMES, SUNDAY TIMES, OBSERVER AND THE GUARDIAN
Product details
Published | 01 Oct 2020 |
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Format | Hardback |
Edition | 1st |
Extent | 368 |
ISBN | 9781408895450 |
Imprint | Bloomsbury Publishing |
Dimensions | 216 x 135 mm |
Publisher | Bloomsbury Publishing |
About the contributors
Reviews
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Hidden realities of a different kind lie beneath the story of Kate Summerscale's The Haunting of Alma Fielding: A True Ghost Story, which delves into the 1930s case of the “Croydon Poltergeist”, investigated by Nandor Fodor, chief ghost hunter for the International Institute for Psychical Research
Guardian, Autumn highlights
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Gothic, dark and scandalous ... A gripping account
Sunday Times
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A chilling real life ghost story ... This book scared me witless
Red
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Expertly told, with all the twists and turns of a chilly novel by Wilkie Collins or Barbara Vine ... The more Summerscale delves, the more she finds out about the hidden compartments of the human mind
Craig Brown, Mail on Sunday
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A terrific true ghost story ... her best book since The Suspicions of Mr Whicher ... She has achieved the perfect balance between her central story and its cultural context.
Guardian
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With The Haunting of Alma Fielding, Kate Summerscale does for ghosts what she did for a murder in her very successfulThe Suspicions of Mr Whicher
Times Literary Supplement