The Astronomer's House

Spooky in topic but erudite and humorous in style, the eight stories in "The Astronomer's House" are set in and around an ancient port town called Sag Harbor. In some the devil appears, in the guise of a stout gentleman with a bushy black beard who describes himself as a therapist eager to assuage the pangs of dissatisfaction. Two others introduce ghosts whose motives are more benign--the cause of architectural preservation being dear, naturally, to the hearts of those who haunt landmark structures. Many years ago, the author nearly bought the strange, derelict tower house by a Sag Harbor cemetery that inspires the title story. Thinking better of it, he built a home of his own design, turreted but unhaunted, in the woods not far away--a locale that, nonetheless, is visited by evil in another story. Listen to what I have to tell you, invites the charming tempter in that tale, which opens in Vermont--"or wonder," he adds, quoting C.S. Lewis, "till it drives you mad, what would have followed if you had."

From the Inside Flap

Many secrets lie hidden within the enigmatic houses, churches, and graveyards of Sag Harbor and deep in the woods that border that ancient Long Island town. Among them: How the sexiest man alive became the man nobody knew. Where to read next week's news. How the organist lost his soul. What is written in the black-bound tome that shares a coffin with the man it enriched and doomed. When seventeen words can drive you mad. How a night of love can last a lifetime. Who is entombed beneath the Old Whaler's Church, and what is in the white box he carries to a phantom ship at Christmastime. Why the ghost in the astronomer's house is happy at last. Such are the tales, strange yet sparkling with style and wit, that await readers of this new collection by the author of "Algonquin Cat" and "Lost in Cyberspace."

About the Author

Val Schaffner is the author of "Algonquin Cat" and "Lost in Cyberspace: Essays and Far-Fetched Tales." A former editor and columnist for the East Hampton Star, a newspaper on eastern Long Island, and co-owner with his wife Min-Myn of an art gallery in Sag Harbor, he lived for many years in a house he designed and build deep in the woods near that ancient port town. He and Min-Myn have three children and now make their home in New York City.

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