The Ghost’s Child (review)

“One damp silvery afternoon an old lady came home from walking her dog and found a boy sitting in her lounge room on the floral settee.” The old lady, Matilda by name, gives the boy tea and, in response to his questions, embarks upon the story of her life. From a wealthy and restricted childhood, she found freedom in travel, and then challenged societal limitations by falling not for a suitable boy of her class but for Feather, a wild young man on the beach. His essential untameability and the loss of their child meant that joy remained elusive, and though she journeyed after him when he departed, their final meeting gave them peace about the past rather than a future together. Lindgren Award–winner Hartnett writes with beauty and poetry, and she successfully pulls off a blend of evocative realism and romance here. Ultimately, though, the fable’s length works against involvement, with philosophizing and description overbalancing plot and character. The conceit of the boy’s being Matilda’s stillborn child come back to guide her out of this life is a poignant one, but it’s hard for readers to know where on the symbolic-to-realistic spectrum Feather falls, and the gossamer details of his relationship with nature are more lyrical than moving. This may be most suitable for readers with a taste for novelized folktales, who will appreciate the symbolism made manifest and the polish of the storytelling.