-
Your next favorite book
is waiting.
A Novel
by Andrés Barba
In this contemporary "ghost story without a ghost," award-winning author Andrés Barba eerily explores how the past can hold us captive, as a woman encounters a compelling unblinking boy in an empty house.
While eagerly preparing a house for prospective buyers, a woman finds herself face to face with a strange sight: a seven-year-old boy with an otherworldly stare. Seemingly appearing and disappearing before her again and again, she realizes that the boy wants something from her. Choosing to leave her everyday world behind, the woman steps through the looking glass, inadvertently nurturing a disturbing co-dependence and discovering a suspended time, a loop, and another life in the process.
In this "ghost story without ghosts," award-winning author Andrés Barba demonstrates an exquisite talent for dissecting human intimacy, excavating the links between past and present, the objects and spaces we leave behind, and what must not be lost or cannot be forgiven. Richly atmospheric and mesmerizing, Last Day of a Prior Life is a concise, disturbing, and dazzling novel that calls to mind the gothic tales of Shirley Jackson and Henry James.
"A ghost story without ghosts that, beyond its formal elegance, explores loneliness, the cycles in which our lives revolve, and the immeasurable challenges of affection." —Mariana Enríquez, author of Our Share of the Night
This information about Last Day of a Prior Life was first featured
in "The BookBrowse Review" - BookBrowse's membership magazine, and in our weekly "Publishing This Week" newsletter. Publication information is for the USA, and (unless stated otherwise) represents the first print edition. The reviews are necessarily limited to those that were available to us ahead of publication. If you are the publisher or author and feel that they do not properly reflect the range of media opinion now available, send us a message with the mainstream reviews that you would like to see added.
Any "Author Information" displayed below reflects the author's biography at the time this particular book was published.
Andrés Barba is the award-winning author of numerous books, including Such Small Hands and The Right Intention. He was one of Granta's Best Young Spanish novelists and received the Premio Herralde for his most recent novel, Luminous Republic, which was translated into over twenty languages. He lives in Argentina.
If you liked Last Day of a Prior Life, try these:
by Guadalupe Nettel
Published 2025
From the International Booker Shortlisted author of Still Born, a powerful collection of stories about characters coping with estrangement, isolation, and the unknown.
by Diane Setterfield
Published 2019
A richly imagined, powerful new novel about how we explain the world to ourselves, ourselves to others, and the meaning of our lives in a universe that remains impenetrably mysterious.
by Tim Wynne-Jones
Published 2017
The ghosts of war reverberate across the generations in a riveting, time-shifting story within a story from acclaimed thriller writer Tim Wynne-Jones.
Show me the books he loves and I shall know the man...
Click Here to find out who said this, as well as discovering other famous literary quotes!
Can you name the title?
Test your book knowledge with our daily trivia challenge!
Your guide toexceptional books
BookBrowse seeks out and recommends the best in contemporary fiction and nonfiction—books that not only engage and entertain but also deepen our understanding of ourselves and the world around us.
