'A moving book which will stay with me' Literary Review 'A moving meditation on
inheritance and home' Esquire 'Gabriel Flynn's work rich with insight and wit makes the
world newly vivid' Claire Messud author of This Strange Eventful History 'Laconic and
darkly poignant Poor Ghost tackles class grief and narrative perplexity with distinctive dry
wit' Leon Craig author of Parallel Hells 'A brilliantly simple idea . . . compellingly
complicated characters' Aidan Cottrell-Boyce author of The End of Nightwork ' Intimate
clever unforgettable' Elvia Wilk author of Oval 'Darkly funny and deeply intelligent '
Julianne Pachico author of Jungle House When Luca drops out of his prestigious PhD programme
and moves back home to Manchester he thinks he'll take some time to consider his life choices:
the failed love affair that ended in a disastrous holiday and embarrassing exit the pursuit of
an academic life that gave him nothing but a strong sense of failure. In need of money and
still convinced the literary life might be for him Luca takes on a job as a ghost writer: Andy
who has progressive MS wants Luca to write his life story. Luca's own father had MS and
eventually took his own life - making the assignment a full immersion in the dark parts of his
childhood Luca has never really dealt with. Luca has his own ideas about what Andy's book
should be like - but he'll have to learn how to curb his dreaming if he ever wants to get
paid. While his love of literature and intellectual ambition might have got him so far away
from his childhood in Manchester Luca is grappling with what it means to try to go home again
- how far where you're from shapes you and how difficult your parent's past is to shake off.
