In this week’s episode of Being Bookish, I am joined by novelist Simon Wroe to discuss his new novel, Ghost Month (released in hardback on the 27th of August).
The novel is set in a London where the dead return to Earth for a single month (September) every year.
During our conversation, we explore the book’s interlocking cast and the events that connect them.
We have Jane and the husband she rents to help hide a secret from her returning mother. Her sister, Angie, is caught between her living husband Peter and a returning ex. Eight-year-old Eddie’s fractured family, suffering under the weight of mother Elizabeth’s unresolved grief over David. Finally, we have Lil, whose storyline may be the book’s most heartbreaking.
Along the way, we get into what the ghosts really offer: closure for the dead, or closure for the living left behind. Simon also opens up about how his own experiences of grief shaped the novel, how he built its overlapping structure across multiple perspectives, and his writing process: planning versus emotion, scenes versus momentum. Plus, what’s Simon up to next?
There’s also the all-important question the book leaves every reader with: would you want a lost loved one to come back, even briefly, or should they remain a beloved and precious memory?