GUESTBOOK: GHOST STORIES
riverhead books, 2019
320 pages
amazon
barnes & noble
indiebound
apple books
“The short story is an arena – or a literary gym – where writers can flex muscles that might seem out of place in a novel. Leanne Shapton has tremendous form in both genres, in fact, but her collection Guestbook (Particular Books) pushes the envelope in the most beguiling, clever and provocative ways. Full of images, photos, wrapping paper, competing texts, and meta-meta-fictional fun and games, it’s a mind-bending celebration of the form’s potential.” – William Boyd, New Statesman, Books of the Year 2019
One of our most imaginative writers and artists explores the visitations that haunt us in the midst of life, and reinvents the very way we narrate experience.
A tennis prodigy collapses after his wins, crediting them to an invisible, not entirely benevolent presence. A series of ghosts appear at their former bedsides, some distraught, some fascinated, to witness their unfamiliar occupants. A woman returns from a visit to Alcatraz with an uncomfortable feeling. The spirit of a prisoner has attached himself to you, a friend tells her. He sensed the sympathy you had for those men. In more than two dozen stories and vignettes, accompanied by an evocative curiosity cabinet of artifacts and images, Guestbook beckons us through the glimmering, unsettling evidence that marks our paths in life.
“[Guestbook’s] pages summon up a persistently uncanny atmosphere that is impossible to pin down, remaining purposefully, lingeringly opaque... Throughout, Shapton’s prose will leave you craving more. She is, above all, a mistress of concision... Of course, this book is an artefact in itself – a tactile, mysterious and seductive one. Read it once and you’ll be very likely to find yourself eyeing it every now and again, wondering whether it’s exactly where you left it, and whether you could possibly have turned down the corner of this page or that.” – The Guardian
“Entirely original... Shapton ekes ghostly mystery out of few words... Like the spiritual world that inspired it, Guestbook draws eerie, tantalizing power from moments of confusion. It throws into question the meanings of what we read and what we think we see.” – Hyperallergic
“Perfectly uncanny... unsettling us in sometimes terrifying and sometimes exhilarating ways. Shapton’s words are interwoven with images of art and artifacts, adding to the surreal aura of each of the stories, reminding us of the always pulsing energy that imbues nearly everything around us, always, whether we feel it right away or not.” – NYLON
“This clever and evocative volume... collects ghost stories ranging from the eerie to the tender... Shapton inventively explores the space between presence and absence, craftily blending images and text to articulate what cannot be explained, only sensed, making for a uniquely haunting and uncanny work.” – Publishers Weekly
“A surreal look at everyday happenings, which is sure to leave you feeling uneasy in a good way.” – Domino Magazine
“Diffuse and eerie... We may not always get to see the lives of others, Shapton seems to say, but still they were here. A strange and haunting art project.” – Kirkus Reviews
“’Ghost’ is a good word for all the nameless longing that doesn’t get resolved in this lifetime. Shapton has created a mystical territory — a performance, an exhibition, a guestbook — in which I felt the ghost within myself; the thing that will outlive me. A fearless and exquisite book." – Miranda July, filmmaker, artist, and bestselling author of No One Belongs Here More Than You and The First Bad Man
“Guestbook reveals Shapton as a ventriloquist, a diviner, a medium, a force, a witness, a goof, and above all, a gift. One of the smartest, most moving, most unexpected books I have read in a very long time.” – Rivka Galchen, author of Atmospheric Disturbances and Little Labors
“Leanne Shapton has a way of making books entirely new, surreal, and uncanny, always experimenting with the ways image and text can be mixed to tell new stories, in new ways. Guestbook is a delicious haunting and leaves one with a chill of recognition for how we live as ghosts in this distant, distracted, and image-obsessed time.” – Sheila Heti, author of Motherhood and How Should a Person Be?