First published 2013
Richard Bowes grows up between Boston and New York City, where childhood encounters with dramatic figures prepare him for stranger things ahead. As an adult living in Manhattan, he moves among Greenwich Village writers while working as a university librarian. The city pulses with supernatural energy around him. Spirits visit him regularly. Fellow writers harbor uncanny secrets he slowly uncovers. Then September 11th tears a wound in Manhattan itself. The attack creates an opening that allows the dead to return as ghosts. Bowes watches his beloved city transform as these spirits walk among the living. His memoir weaves together decades of supernatural encounters with his deep love for Manhattan. The book captures both the hidden magical life of Greenwich Village's literary community and one man's lifelong relationship with forces beyond ordinary understanding.
Genres: literary-fiction, american-fiction, contemporary, ghost-stories, biography-memoir, 21st-century
Vibes: atmospheric, emotional, intimate, thought-provoking
Tropes: found-family, unreliable-narrator
Setting: Boston, Greenwich Village, Manhattan, New York City
Period: 20th-century, 21st-century
318 pages · Paperback · Lethe Press