Debra Spark

When Charlotte Lewin's grandfather offers to send her to Barbados on a special mission, he believes he is sending her on a much-needed vacation, following the death of Charlotte's sister. The mission seems simple enough: to return a long-forgotten, jewel-encrusted menorah to its rightful owner on the island. However, Charlotte soon finds herself navigating her way through unsettling racial tensions--between white Jews, black Jews, and the native community.

In the oppressive Barbados heat where the body can’t hide its own discomfort, Charlotte ends up sitting side-by-side at a bar with the ghost of Bridgetown himself. And when the startling ramifications of a bizarre parachuting accident threaten to unravel the precarious peace, it is Charlotte who struggles to find the answers. Her emotional entanglement with the people of the island leads to a search, not just to find a home for the menorah, but also for her own place in the world.

“What begins as something of a ghost story, a shaggy-menorah story, winds up being a profound meditation on human hauntedness, the inevitability of ghostliness and grief. This is a beautiful, wise, and enormously moving novel.”
“Identity politics, however, is only part of the mixture that makes Spark’s novel so intriguing. As the plot thickens, so do the number of 'ghosts'--not only the 'duppies' of local legend but also those that have fastened around Charlotte’s heart. Letting go of these ghosts is Charlotte’s task and ultimately her fate.”

"The acclaimed author of Coconuts for the Saints (1994) and editor of the short story collection 20 Under 30, Spark has written a multilayered mystery, replete with creepy middle-aged men, scary letters and suicide notes, a mysterious death and rumors of a handsome young ghost who floats through the sweltering city of Bridgetown, Barbados, bedding women as he goes along. But that's not all. Spark tackles race relations between Jews--black and white--and the native population in Barbados, all the while plumbing the weird, otherworldly feelings of grief and loss familiar to anyone who's lost a loved one. If it sounds like too much for one novel, it's not. The tangle of themes and narratives makes for a deep, thoughtful book that feels light, a joyous read shrouded in sadness." -- New York Newsday