The Haunting of Alma Fielding

A True Ghost Story

By: Kate Summerscale

Narrated by: David Morrissey

Named a Best Book of the Year by NPR • The Sunday Times • The New Statesman • The Times • The Spectator • The Telegraph

Shortlisted for the 2020 Baillie Gifford Prize * A New York Times Book Review Editors' Choice * A New York Times Book Review Paperback Row Selection

“Prepare not to see much broad daylight, literal or metaphorical, for days if you read this.... The atmosphere evoked is something I will never forget.”—The Times (London)

London, 1938. In the suburbs of the city, a young housewife has become the eye in a storm of chaos. In Alma Fielding’s modest home, china flies off the shelves and eggs fly through the air; stolen jewelry appears on her fingers, white mice crawl out of her handbag, beetles appear from under her gloves; in the middle of a car journey, a turtle materializes on her lap. The culprit is incorporeal. As Alma cannot call the police, she calls the papers instead.

After the sensational story headlines the news, Nandor Fodor, a Hungarian ghost hunter for the International Institute for Psychical Research, arrives to investigate the poltergeist. But when he embarks on his scrupulous investigation, he discovers that the case is even stranger than it seems.

By unravelling Alma’s peculiar history, Fodor finds a different and darker type of haunting, a tale of trauma, alienation, loss and revenge. He comes to believe that Alma’s past has bled into her present, her mind into her body. There are no words for processing her experience, so it comes to possess her. As the threat of a world war looms, and as Fodor’s obsession with the case deepens, Alma becomes ever more disturbed.

With characteristic rigor and insight, Kate Summerscale brilliantly captures the rich atmosphere of a haunting that transforms into a very modern battle between the supernatural and the subconscious.

Fascinating slice of history!

Brilliant! I listened to this book on a recommendation without really knowing much about what it was about, and wasn'tdisappointed. It covered piritualism, war, trauma, and the evolving understanding of trauma while recounting the history of a famous haunting.

Good story but not my fav by this author

If you have an interest in paranormal history or the spiritualism movement I recommend this book. The narrator is great but I personally couldn’t get into this book as well as I have with others by this author, who’s one of my favorites of this genre. Still worth the listen.

So riveting!

This story is very spooky, and yet the ghosts may not be real. I listened to this book in one day because the story was so riveting I date not stop.

Pretty Good & Worthwhile, But Not Great

I thought this book was pretty good overall, interesting and worthwhile...just not great. I considered giving a “4” but Audible’s rating system does define 3 Stars as “pretty good”. My rating is less about Ms. Summerscale’s writing and more about the story -and facts- that she had to work with. Summerscale did her usual very thorough, in-depth reporting of the known facts, along with tying in the socio-historical background, which she uses quite well to increase interest. However, I did not find the story itself as interesting as “Whicher” and “Wicked Boy”, both of which I enjoyed more. (That’s just a matter of personal taste.) I almost gave the performance a "3" because I found the narrator's voice (and perhaps the EQ) a bit "soft" and a challenge to hear in the car (unlike many other titles), but the narrator was quite good at telling the tale.

awesome

I love this author. All her books are must read and listen. this one doesn't disappoint.