Poor Ghost

David Starkey author

Format:Hardback

Publisher:Turner Publishing Company

Published:2nd May '24

£23.99

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Poor Ghost cover

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On a September afternoon in Santa Barbara, a private jet carrying the members of Poor Ghost—one of America’s most storied rock bands—plunges into the backyard of Caleb Crane, a retired insurance salesman. Poor Ghost moves back and forth between the impact of the plane crash on Caleb’s life, and an oral history of Poor Ghost, from its beginnings as a working-class punk band to rock icons.On a September afternoon in Santa Barbara, a private jet carrying the members of Poor Ghost—one of America’s most storied rock bands—plunges into the backyard of Caleb Crane, a retired insurance salesman. Poor Ghost moves back and forth between the impact of the plane crash on Caleb’s life, and an oral history of Poor Ghost, from its beginnings as a working-class punk band to rock icons.

"As you read David Starkey’s Poor Ghost,you’ll be thinking deeply about how we got from Boston to QAnon, from Casey Kasem to Kyle Rittenhouse: what it all means to you, and what it says about us.  But you won’t notice you’re thinking, because you’ll be laughing too hard as Stacey the retired librarian knocks out knife-wielding Álvaro de Campos with a jug of rosé to keep him from killing you in your own backyard while other Halloween-costumed fans of the aging rock band whose plane crashed there a while back livestream the fracas.  By the time you realize how involved you are in the deepening mystery, it will be too late to get out.” H. L. Hix, author of Legible Heavens and The Death of H. L. Hix

"Poor Ghost opens with a bang and a fire that chars a shattered Cessna and a towering pine tree. It ends with another bang from an exploding brushfire that consumes a massive 70 acres and a central character. In between, this highly original novel—unlike any I’ve ever read—shifts among second-person revelations, text exchanges, rock magazine interviews, news articles, and government reports, exploring the ghosts of those departed and those about to be. There’s an invasion of groupies, lunatic murderers, a missing dog, and the mystery of what caused the plane crash. David Starkey makes it all meaningful, bringing the dead to life and offering rich, inventive entertainment." —Walter Cummins, author of Where We Live and Seeking Authenticity

ISBN: 9781684429721

Dimensions: 215mm x 139mm x 19mm

Weight: unknown

320 pages

New edition