ALICE SEES GHOSTS

An encounter with a ghost leads a young woman on a journey to uncover the secrets of her family’s complicated past.

Alice Bloodshaw, an aimless heiress in Massachusetts, is haunted. When the novel begins, she’s just recovered from a mysterious illness that left her temporarily unable to speak. She and her mother, Clare—a mean-spirited alcoholic—are living in Clare’s mother Nanette’s large and historic Berkshires home. The two keep vigil as Nanette nears the end of her life after several strokes render her, too, speechless. When Alice begins having strange dreams and sees a vision of her grandfather, dead 20 years, she wonders if her recent illness is the cause. She enlists the help of her psychiatrist fiancé, Ronit Roy, who makes the trip from their home in Cambridge to help Alice and meet her beloved grandmother. Initially skeptical of her claims of seeing ghosts, Ronit eventually warms to the idea after Alice discloses that her grandfather’s ghost has sent her a message, seemingly suggesting she visit India, Ronit’s homeland. Ronit and Alice make the trip overseas both to meet his family and to learn why her grandfather’s ghost sent her there. They end up meeting some of Alice’s long-lost relations, further complicating the story of who her grandfather really was, and setting them on a journey to uncover even more family secrets. Though she’s the title character, Alice lacks interiority and is frustratingly difficult to parse. Ronit, perhaps a stand-in for the reader, is constantly mystified by her own peculiarities, such as her refusal to use a cellphone and her overly formal speech, as well as her murky motivations. The action, however, is propulsive enough to keep the reader invested in what will happen next, despite a flat protagonist.

An unevenly engaging story about finding family in unexpected places.