Ghost Town by Tom Perrotta

Some summers change everything. For Jimmy Perrini, it was the summer of grief, set against the backdrop of 1970s suburban New Jersey—just a few miles from Manhattan, but a world apart.

From New York Times bestselling author Tom Perrotta—hailed as “the Steinbeck of Suburbia” (Time), “our Balzac of the burbs” (Chicago Sun-Times), and “an American Chekhov” (The New York Times)—comes this gripping, darkly nostalgic novel about the events that shaped one boy’s life, finally told decades later.

After tragedy strikes at the end of eighth grade, Jimmy drifts away from the people he loves and into the orbit of two older teenagers: a notorious local burnout with a fast car and a shaky grip on reality, and a smart, eccentric girl whose Ouija board seems to offer the only comfort their grief can find. As a fateful public drama unfolds, Jimmy is caught between the pull of the occult and the cold truths of home.

Narrated by an older Jimmy, now a novelist himself, Ghost Town is a haunting meditation on how the past lingers—on the way our ghosts stay with us, even when we’re certain we’ve left them behind.

This is Perrotta at his finest: tender, eerie, and deeply human. The kind of book that earns a shelf-talker around here, the kind you’ll want to read in one sitting.

Perfect for a rainy afternoon by the cove, with the salt air drifting in and the pages turning a little faster than you planned. Come linger awhile and discover it for yourself.

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