Synopses & Reviews
An Entertainment Weekly, Millions, and LitHub Most-Anticipated Book of 2020 pick
A Rumpus and Electric Literature Most-Anticipated Debut of 2020 pick
A Ms. Magazine Top Feminist Book Coming Out in 2020
A BookRiot Best Book Club Pick of 2020
A Celadon Books Most-Anticipated Novel of 2020
A Lily Top Book to Read by Women in 2020 Selection
A Buzz Magazine Top New Book of the New Decade
A She Reads Most-Anticipated Historical Fiction Pick of 2020
A transporting debut novel that reveals the ways in which a Jamaican family forms and fractures over generations, in the tradition of Homegoing by Yaa Gyasi.
Stanford Solomon has a shocking, thirty-year-old secret. And it's about to change the lives of everyone around him. Stanford Solomon is actually Abel Paisley, a man who faked his own death and stole the identity of his best friend.
And now, nearing the end of his life, Stanford is about to meet his firstborn daughter, Irene Paisley, a home health aide who has unwittingly shown up for her first day of work to tend to the father she thought was dead.
These Ghosts Are Family revolves around the consequences of Abel's decision and tells the story of the Paisley family from colonial Jamaica to present day Harlem. There is Vera, whose widowhood forced her into the role of single mother. There are two daughters and a granddaughter who have never known they are related. And there are others, like the house boy who loved Vera, whose lives might have taken different courses if not for Abel Paisley's actions.
These Ghosts Are Family explores the ways each character wrestles with their ghosts and struggles to forge independent identities outside of the family and their trauma. The result is an engrossing portrait of a family and individuals caught in the sweep of history, slavery, migration, and the more personal dramas of infidelity, lost love, and regret. This electric and luminous family saga announces the arrival of a new American talent.
Review
"...a kaleidoscopic portrait of a troubled but resilient family whose struggles are inscribed by the island they once called home. This masterful chronicle haunts like the work of Marlon James and hits just as hard." Publishers Weekly (Starred Review)
Review
"[A] stunning, kaleidoscopic debut....Card invites readers to imagine themselves as a series of characters, one by one, in the moments before [a] revelation upends their identities, and such inventive narrative techniques continue throughout the novel." Booklist (Starred Review)
Review
"Beguiling....Vividly drawn and compelling. There is magic in these pages." BookPage (Starred Review)
Review
"A rich and layered story....A wonderfully ambitious novel....An intriguing debut with an inventive spin on the generational family saga." Kirkus
Review
"Inventive and captivating....Card's depiction of genealogy and historical research is spot-on..." BuzzFeed
About the Author
Maisy Card holds an MFA in Fiction from Brooklyn College and is a public librarian. Her writing has appeared in Lenny Letter, School Library Journal, Agni, Sycamore Review, Liars' League NYC, and Ampersand Review. Maisy was born in St. Catherine, Jamaica, but was raised in Queens, New York. Maisy earned an MLIS from Rutgers University and a BA in English and American Studies from Wesleyan University. She is the author of These Ghosts Are Family.