The Haunting of Alma Fielding

Named a Best Book of the Year by NPR • Sunday Times • New Statesman • The Times • The Spectator • The Telegraph

Shortlisted for the 2020 Baillie Gifford Prize * A New York Times Book Review Editors' Choice * A New York Times Book Review Paperback Class Choice

"Prepare not to see much bright daylight, literally or metaphorically, for days if you read this.... The atmosphere conjured up is something I will never forget." - The Times (London)

London, 1938. On the outskirts of the city, a young housewife becomes caught in a whirlwind of chaos. In Alma Fielding's modest home, china flies off shelves and eggs fly through the air; stolen jewelry appears on her fingers, white mice crawl out of her purse, and beetles emerge from under her gloves; mid-car journey, a turtle appears on her lap. The culprit is immaterial. Unable to call the police, Alma calls the newspapers instead. After the sensational story makes headlines, Nandor Fodor, a Hungarian ghost hunter with the International Institute for Psychical Research, arrives to investigate the poltergeist. But as he embarks on his meticulous investigation, he discovers the case is stranger than it seems. Unraveling Alma's strange history, Fodor finds a different, darker kind of haunting—a tale of trauma, alienation, loss, and revenge. He comes to believe that Alma's past has seeped into her present, her mind into her body. There are no words to describe her experience, so obsessed has she become. As the threat of world war looms, and Fodor's obsession with the case deepens, Alma becomes more and more disturbed. With her characteristic rigor and insight, Kate Summerscale brilliantly captures the rich atmosphere of the chase, which morphs into a very modern battle between the supernatural and the unconscious.