A Face at the Window

By Dennis McFarland

Book Overview

"An irresistible tale that ventures into the ghostly realms of psychology, personality and intimacy" from the bestselling author of The Music Room (San Francisco Chronicle).

When their daughter leaves for college, newly minted empty nesters Cookson and Ellen Selway decide to escape the eerie quiet of their home and take a trip to London. But not long after arriving, it becomes apparent that the Selways have traded one unsettling locale for another.

Like Cookson, a recovering alcoholic and drug addict, the Hotel Willerton has a disturbing past. Fifty years ago, a young girl fell to her death from one of the hotel's windows, and her ghost is haunting Cookson, slowly drawing him back toward the darkness that once consumed him. As Cookson descends into a spiral of self-destruction, he is joined by two more apparitions, each reflecting the worst parts of himself and forcing him to confront the mistakes of his past that have tormented him for years.

From the celebrated author of the Washington Post Best Book of the Year Nostalgia and the New York Times-bestselling The Music Room, this is "a gripping, stylish, consistently entertaining novel" that offers a literary spin on the traditional ghost story (The Atlanta Journal-Constitution).

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1504074165
• ISBN13: 9781504074162
• Release Date: February 2022
• Publisher: Open Road Integrated Media LLC
• Length: 296 Pages
• Weight: 0.96 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.7" x 6.0" x 9.0"

Customer Reviews

A Surprising Treasure

Dennis McFarland has created a wonderful book which blurs the line between reality and fantasy. His writing is exceptional, and he applies it to a unique storyline, drawing in the reader until they are unaware that there is a line between real and make-believe at all.While I wouldn't call this genre horror, I would perhaps call it a thriller. It is the worst kind of fear that McFarland instills in us, the fear that any normal person can spuratically become un-ordinary, that something, anything can drive each of us over the edge.

This story haunted me.

I read this a while ago and bits from the story still pop into my mind. It's a very unusual tale.

A chilling effect and a unique plot

I found myself really getting to know the characters and I loved the little boy in the story. I remember staying up late immersed in a part of the book where the main character has another encounter with the ghost world. During this part of the book, he is very out of touch with reality, and after I finished reading it I realized I was in the same disoriented state. This book is very unique, because it is not your normal ghost story. It combines the life stories of people who lived many years ago with a person who lives in today's world. Even if you don't normally read ghost stories (I normally don't), you would probably not be able to put this book down! I definately wasn't able to.

Stunning prose, a delight to read and savour

Dennis McFarland writes stunningly beautiful prose, and "A Face at the Window" is no exception. Anyone looking for Stephen King horror might want to go elsewhere, but anyone fascinated by rich, insightful portraits of the human condition (think of E.L. Doctorow) will love McFarland's work. "A Face at the Window" captures beauty and pain and true fear - the fear of finding oneself.

A Spine-Tingling Suspense Story

This book had me on the edge my seat until the very last page, where I still sat begging for more. It is not the typical ghost story, because it combines the story of the ghosts extrodanarily well with the real main character'severyday life. Dennis McFarland did a fantastic job of developing his characters and holding his reader's suspense. This is one of the best books I have read in a long time, and I strongly recommend it to fiction readers of all kinds