Night Side Of The River
£16.10£18.00 (-11%)
A ghost has no substance, but it has power – and presence – and it can appear in alternative forms. In the metaverse, we are all alternative forms. The Dead will join us.
The genre-bending and dazzling new collection of ghost stories from the Sunday Times bestselling Jeanette Winterson
‘Always passionate and provocative’
NEW STATESMAN
‘One of the wittiest writers around today’
NATASHA PULLEY, author of The Watchmaker of Filigree Street
Our lives are digital, exposed and always-on. We track our friends and family wherever they go. We have millennia of knowledge at our fingertips.
We know everything about our world. But we know nothing about theirs.
We have changed, but our ghosts have not. They’ve simply adapted and innovated, found new channels to reach us. They inhabit our apps and wander the metaverse just as they haunt our homes and our memories, always seeking new ways to connect.
To live amongst us.
To remind us.
To tempt us.
To take their revenge.
These stories are not ours to tell. They are the stories of the dead – of those we’ve lost, loved, forgotten… and feared. Some are fiction. But some may not be.
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by Amazon Customer
I loved everyone of these stories. Thought provoking, sad, hopeful, and some wickedly funny. I know I will read them again.
by Marvellous Readers
Jeanette Winterson’s paranormal short story collection In ‘Night Side of the River’, is divided into four sections: Devices, Places, People and Visitations. It is very wide ranging, with some of her stories focusing on the return of ghosts from the past, and others of apparitions generated by the future, through virtual reality, AI and phone apps. There are also short essay type sections where Winterson talks about her own paranormal experiences.
I have always enjoyed Winterson’s writing and this book was no exception. She is very clever, and her use of language, character development and foreshadowing are very strong. I particularly liked ‘A Fur Coat’, which was horrifying. In there she describes a keyhole as being like a vulva, which initially seemed gratuitous and later made absolute sense. All of the stories stayed with me afterwards and made me think. My only criticism (and I suspect this is more due to the form of the short story, rather than Winterson) is that the stories often didn’t have time to ratchet up the tension and then ended abruptly. However, they were still very very good.
by Kindle Customer
Ghost stories for our contemporary world and a contemplation on the borders between life and death. Often deeply moving and intensely personal.
by sevenpin
For the arrival of Autumn with nights getting shorter, the coming Halloween and Winter, Jeanette Winterson gives us a terrific collection of short stories in which she explores the genre of horror and ghosts with the blurring of lines between the living and dead, the mass of the unexplained. Winterson writes an introduction that explores the unsettling themes, including listing classic fiction from the genre that includes A Christmas Carol and The Turn of the Screw, and interspersing her thoughts and experiences throughout the tales from different time periods and the development of the genre with technological and AI developments. The stories are:
DEVICES
Apparition
The Old House at Home
Ghost in the Machine
PLACES
The Spare Room
The Door
PEOPLE
No Ghost Ghost Story
The Undiscovered Country
Canterville and Cock
VISITATIONS
Thin Air
Fountain with Lions
Night Side of the River
I enjoyed most of the stories with their chills and the paranormal, with their occasional frissons of fear. The ones that I particularly appreciated including a recent widow who continues to be haunted by her late husband, via a JohnApp, the last thing she wants as he is a nasty piece of work, Thomas is attending a seance in NYC wandering off only to bump into Esmeralda, and then there is Jonny the Juggler and Max, the thief, whose lives spiral into a nightmare living in the Dower House. We are given a glimpse of different experiences of the divide between the living and the dead with William and Simon, and we have Paul who organises illusions of ghosts, only to be manipulated by the dead Pamela, the upcoming wedding of Stevie and Amy, and perhaps by favourite story in which a scared out of her wits Linda finds herself on a trawler on the Thames she does not want to be on.
I can see many readers liking this latest offering of stories from Winterson, particularly with the approaching dark, cold and winter nights. Many thanks to the publisher for an ARC.
by C S
Thoroughly enjoyed this selection of ghost stories and short essays from Jeanette’s experience. The majority of the stories are thought-provoking, particularly in the earlier sections, and a good number have that genuine chill down the spine.
In the later section there’s a real sense of grief that permeates the stories and I found them emotionally touching as well as chilling. Thin Air was a particular joy.
by V. O’Regan
‘Do you believe in ghosts? The creak on the stair, the chill in the room, a strange scent, a wavering light in the window. ….The sudden presence of a presence.” – ‘Night Side of the River: Ghost Stories’ by Jeanette Winterson.
This is a collection of thirteen ghost stories by this award-winning British author. It opens with an informative Introduction on how death and ghosts are treated in various world cultures and the literary history of ghost stories and their enduring appeal.
It is divided into four sections: Devices, Places, People and Visitations. Each section also contains a short personal essay about Winterson’s own paranormal experiences. In the final one, ‘The Future of Ghosts’ Winterson raises questions about the possibility of the haunting of the metaverse.
There were stories that stood out for me, while others made less of an impact. Still, on balance I felt that it was a strong collection that highlighted the traditional ghost story rather than trying to be overly experimental in style.
Some of the stories were quite moving, with ‘The Undiscovered Country’ proving the most outstanding for me. I also enjoyed the story about the haunted house illusionists and Paul Canterville’s encounter with Pamela, a wise-cracking American ghost. Others that proved memorable were the haunting ‘Night Side of the River’ and ‘Fur Coat’.
Overall, I found ‘Night Side of the River’ an engaging collection and perfect spooky reading as the nights draw in.