A Novel
by Bonnie Jo Campbell
The best-selling author of The Waters (a Read with Jenna Book Club Pick) returns with a tale of love, transgression, and the miraculous healing power of the holiday table.
In this contemporary Christmas Carol, Bonnie Jo Campbell has created a complex, gritty, spooky, and ultimately heartwarming holiday story that unfolds in an isolated farmhouse. It is the night before Christmas in a small town in Michigan, and a young woman is haunted by her father's death. She has been silently penitent for nine years, but being stuck in the past has embittered her, made her cut herself off emotionally from her community and her family, despite her deep devotion to them. When a surprising guest appears at the (dreaded) Christmas Eve dinner, the family opens up to reveal their secrets. Redemption is never easy or wholesale, but sometimes a family needs a good story as much as they need to face the truth. In this remarkable exploration of crime and punishment, salvation arrives at the darkest hour. The power of familial love and a sense of humor promise a brighter and more joyful new beginning for the whole family.
Media reviews not yet available.
This information about The Spirits 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.
Bonnie Jo Campbell is the author of seven works of fiction, including The Waters, a national bestseller, and American Salvage, finalist for the National Book Award and the National Book Critics Circle Award. The recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship, she lives outside Kalamazoo, Michigan, with her husband and donkeys.

If you liked The Spirits, try these:
Theo of Golden by Allen Levi
One spring morning, a stranger arrives in the small southern city of Golden. No one knows where he has come from…or why…
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.