The Ghosts of Normal

Nine-year-old Max Beatty is still struggling with the recent death of his father. One day after school, he follows an injured dog into a condemned house, ravaged by fire. To Max’s amazement, he finds himself inside a beautiful home, inhabited by a loving family from the 1930s. Max’s interactions with the family will change not only his life, but those of everyone around him, both living and dead. Part ghost story, part coming-of-age thriller, The Ghosts of Normal follows Max’s struggle to separate fantasy from reality, long enough to bring a killer to justice.

About the Author

Allison Burnett is a novelist, film director, and screenwriter living in Los Angeles. He grew up in Cleveland Heights, Ohio, and Evanston, Illinois, where he graduated from Northwestern University. Later, he was a fellow in playwriting at The Juilliard School.His debut novel, Christopher, was a finalist for the 2004 PEN Center USA Literary Award in Fiction. The first installment of the B.K. Troop Trilogy, it was followed up by The House Beautiful (2006) and Death By Sunshine (2011).Allison's second literary trilogy includes the novels Undiscovered Gyrl (2009), Another Girl (2015), and The Last Girl Podcast (2023).He also published the tragi-comic novel, The Escape of Malcolm Poe (2014), and the coming-of-age ghost story, The Ghosts of Normal (2020).

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