Springtime: A Ghost Story

by Michelle de Kretser

Overview

“This is a gorgeous, delicately surprising piece of writing. . . . It's like spirit photography, all fuzzy outlines and unaccountable light: a snapshot of something that may or may not exist.” —Terrence Rafferty, The New York Times Book Review

When Frances met Charlie at a party in Melbourne, he was married with a young son. Now that the couple has moved to subtropical Sydney, a lusher and more chaotic city, Frances has an unshakable sense that the world has tipped on its axis. Everything seems alien, and exotic—and Frances is haunted by the unknowability of Charlie's previous life. A young art historian studying the objects in paintings––the material world––Frances takes mind–clearing walks around her neighborhood with her dog. Behind the fence of one garden, she thinks she sees a woman in an old–fashioned gown, but something is not right. It's as if the garden exists in a vacuum suspended in time, "at an angle to life."

Springtime is a ghost story that doesn't conform to the genre's traditions of dark and stormy nights, graveyards and ruins. It breaks new ground by unfolding in sunny, suburban Australia, and the realism of the characters and events make the story's ambiguities and eeriness all the more disquieting. The richness of observation here is immediately recognizable as Michelle de Kretser's, a writer who has been praised by Hilary Mantel as a master of ""the sharp, almost hallucinatory detail."

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781936787432
Publisher:	Catapult
Publication date:	04/12/2016
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	92
Sales rank:	843,790
Product dimensions:	4.60(w) x 6.90(h) x 0.50(d)

About the Author

Michelle de Kretser was born in Sri Lanka and emigrated to Australia when she was fourteen. Educated in Melbourne and Paris, she is the author of four novels, including the Miles Franklin Award–winning Questions of Travel and the Man Booker Prize longlisted The Lost Dog. She is currently an associate of the English Department at the University of Sydney.

Hometown:

Melbourne, Victoria, Australia

Date of Birth:

November 11, 1957

Place of Birth:

Colombo, Sri Lanka

Education:

B.A. (Hons), 1979; Maîtrise-ès-lettres, 1982

Editorial Reviews

This is a gorgeous, delicately surprising piece of writing, horror—if it is—at its most melancholy and most elusive. It's like spirit photography, all fuzzy outlines and unaccountable light: a snapshot of something that may or may not exist.

The New York Times Book Review - Terrence Rafferty

02/15/2016
All the traditional pleasures of a ghost story are revived, and cleverly transformed, in de Kretser’s taut, nimble, atmospheric short novel. It isn’t spirits but personal habits and histories that intrude on the verdant and “explosive Sydney spring,” the first Frances and Charlie are spending as a couple. Frances, 28, is an art historian “whose life had taken place in books”; she met older IT guy Charlie in Melbourne a year prior, and the two bonded over their French mothers and complicated childhoods. Charlie left his family to be with Frances, but the past shadows their new life together. Frances, who doesn’t want children, finds Charlie’s visiting young son Luke to be an inscrutable intruder; she resents Luke’s harassment of her dog, Rod; studying Luke’s mother’s photos online, she thinks “her face had the empty yet powerful look of a primitive mask.” To make matters worse, an eerie prank caller targets the couple, and at a dinner party, Charlie’s attention seems to wander to a coworker. When Frances notices, on her daily walks with Rod, a mysterious figure in the “shadowy depths” of a garden, she wonders whether she’s seeing something otherworldly. Readers will retain the precise, startling images powering de Kretser’s prose—azaleas growing “as big as fists”—rendering even loved ones as unknowable as the world beyond. (Apr.)

Publishers Weekly

Praise for Springtime

“This is a gorgeous, delicately surprising piece of writing. . . . It's like spirit photography, all fuzzy outlines and unaccountable light: a snapshot of something that may or may not exist.” —Terrence Rafferty, The New York Times Book Review

"Springtime is a small and beautifully crafted book, all shining, perfectly polished sentences. It's slight enough to finish in one sitting, but restrain yourself: Savor every word of it." —Constance Grady, Vox's "18 New Books to Read this Summer"

"De Kretser, author of four well–received novels, is a writer who other writers admire. Hilary Mantel, no less, has praised de Kretser for her 'sharp, almost hallucinatory detail.'" —Sarah Murdoch, The Toronto Star

“Each bite–sized chapter of this charming book is punctuated by a revelation, whether mundane or otherworldly, that reminds us that we all inhabit not just space, but time. It's a fast and captivating read, leaving us to wonder what we might be missing as we wander through the landscapes of our own lives.” —Ginny Greene, The Minneapolis Star Tribune

"A young scholar is haunted by literal and metaphorical ghosts. . . Frances is adjusting to her new life not only as a Sydney resident, but as the lover of Charlie, who's left his marriage and his young son, Luke, to live with her. To mitigate against her disorientation—particularly when Luke comes to visit—Frances walks her dog through her new neighborhood. When she keeps glimpsing a woman no one else can see, wearing "an old–fashioned dress" and standing in a lushly landscaped backyard, she feels unsettled. . . De Kretser has crafted a story that is somewhere shy of novella, but the brevity suits not only the abruptness of the intrusions in Frances' life, but also de Kretser's knack for focusing on just a few charged details. Indeed, this is a story about perception as much as it is a kind of ghost story. . . A subtle and intellectual take on the supernatural." —Kirkus Reviews

"All the traditional pleasures of a ghost story are revived, and cleverly transformed, in de Kretser's taut, nimble, atmospheric short novel. . . Readers will retain the precise, startling images powering de Kretser's prose—azaleas growing 'as big as fists'—rendering even loved ones as unknowable as the world beyond." —Publishers Weekly

“De Kretser's prose is as lush and evocative as the plantlife surrounding and intoxicating her protagonist.” —Christopher Shultz, LitReactor

“A serious international novelist of the first rank.” —The Economist

"A dark gem of a book . . . .One reads Springtime not for its shock value––this tale is much more subtle than that––but for the way De Kretser explores the nature of ambiguity and for her deliciously unsettling descriptions." —Andrew Wilson, The Independent

“[Springtime is] a wonderful reminder of the good things that can happen when publishers take on shorter works….It's a ghost story, albeit a thrillingly self–aware and lightfooted one….While Springtime is preternaturally alert to its antecedents––despite the bell–like clarity of de Kretser's prose the story suggests something of a thrilling sublimation of Henry James's supernatural fiction––it is also exquisitely modern.” —James Bradley, The Australian

From the Publisher

04/15/2016
In Miles Franklin Award-winning de Krester's atmospheric fable, Frances and Charlie have moved from Melbourne to lush, cerulean-skied Sydney so that she can take up a research scholarship on 18th-century French portraits at the university. One morning, as Frances walks their dog along the river, she spies a woman in an old-fashioned pink dress tending to a garden, and she has a sensation that time has somehow tilted; the woman isn't really there. Spooky moments follow, the relationship between Charlie and Frances grows tenser, but does Frances really believe in ghosts? VERDICT This brief, absorbing read has just enough portraiture, moodiness, and fine language to stay with the reader long after the cover is quietly closed.

Library Journal

2016-01-20
A young scholar is haunted by literal and metaphorical ghosts. Frances, an Australian woman who must uproot from Melbourne to Sydney for a research fellowship, was raised a "solitary, studious girl, whose life had taken place in books." Now a 28-year-old scholar of 18th-century art, Frances is adjusting to her new life not only as a Sydney resident, but as the lover of Charlie, who's left his marriage and his young son, Luke, to live with her. To mitigate against her disorientation—particularly when Luke comes to visit—Frances walks her dog through her new neighborhood. When she keeps glimpsing a woman no one else can see, wearing "an old-fashioned dress" and standing in a lushly landscaped backyard, she feels unsettled, a feeling compounded by a rash of mysterious phone calls. De Kretser (Questions of Travel, 2013, etc.) has crafted a story that is somewhere shy of novella, but the brevity suits not only the abruptness of the intrusions in Frances' life, but also de Kretser's knack for focusing on just a few charged details. Indeed, this is a story about perception as much as it is a kind of ghost story. Frances is never able to pin down the woman at the edges of her vision, and scenes of Frances' interactions at dinner parties or with Luke (whom de Kretser renders masterfully) underscore the mundane ways all of us fail to truly articulate the way we see even to those closest to us. As the story comes to a close, Frances' unearthly visions begin to cast light on her real life, resulting in a strange and resonant ending. As Frances says of her own research: "What people don't pay attention to changes the story." A subtle and intellectual take on the supernatural.

Kirkus Reviews