Kara Was Here: A Novel

Brad Mitchell’s life is falling apart. His marriage is in limbo. The woman he thought he would marry, Kara, died from an overdose. An old friend keeps trying to convince him that Kara was actually murdered. And he has started to see double. Literally. When Kara—or, rather, her ghost—returns to Brad, his past and present blur into a fog.Kara Was Here tells the story of a failed actress whose life and sudden death are only partially understood; her teenage sister, Gwen, who starts taking dangerous steps into Kara’s secret world; Kara’s college friend, Margot, who went from being the football team’s sexy secret weapon to the solitary proprietress of a baked goods business; and Kara’s one-time lover, Brad, who stands with one foot in the past and one foot in an increasingly uncertain future.In the spirit of Clare Messud's The Emperor's Children or Hannah Pittard's The Fates Will Find Their Way, Conescu’s novel is at once a mystery about the dangers of aging into adulthood, an exploration of truth and perception, and a story about the ways we keep those we love with us—the people we’ve lost, the people we no longer see, and the people we used to be.

From Publishers Weekly

Conescu&'s latest is a light, engaging novel about a man, his deceased ex-girlfriend, and the mystery of her death. Brad Mitchell is a realtor with a comfortable life in North Carolina. At the funeral of his ex-girlfriend, Kara Tinsley, whom he dated in college, Brad reconnects with Margot Cominsky, another college friend. Margot, too, has settled into adulthood, running a muffin business, but Kara was wild to the end, dying of a drug overdose. At the funeral, Kara&'s oafish roommate, Steve Donegan, astonishes everyone by revealing that he and Kara were engaged—something neither Brad nor Margot knew, even though both kept in touch with Kara after college. Doubting the circumstances of Kara&'s death, Margot investigates and uncovers some unnerving information about Steve. Reluctantly, Brad is drawn into Margot&'s investigation, though he is distracted by the specter of a miscarriage that haunts his marriage. But that&'s not the only ghost haunting Brad: Kara appears periodically for a chat. Although the denouement is disappointing, Conescu&'s characters are believable, and he carries off Kara&'s ghost scenes without melodrama or portent. Neither a true ghost story nor a grisly murder mystery, this novel is a solid, entertaining read. Agent: Bill Clegg, WME Entertainment. (Nov.)

From Booklist

Some called Kara irresponsible, some called her wild, some called her selfish. Whether she was any or all of these things, the 34-year-old failed actress is now dead, presumably of a drug overdose. However, her college friend Margot believes she was murdered by the man who claims to have been her fiancé. Meanwhile, Gwen, Kara’s 17-year-old sister, feels her older sibling’s presence and even hears her voice. As for Brad, Kara’s ex-boyfriend, is he actually seeing Kara’s spectral self and communicating with her—or is it only his imagination? He is suffering from vision problems, after all, which may be symptomatic of a serious illness, a fact he is keeping secret from his pregnant wife. As the point of view shifts among these three players in Kara’s dramatic life, the reader sees how the respective lives of the three survivors become inextricably linked and impacted by Kara’s past and her spectral present. Resolution to their problems may come a bit too easily and tidily, but the characters are sympathetic and readers will welcome their ultimate successes. --Michael Cart

Shelf Awareness

"In many ways, Kara Was Here can be read as a contemporary take on James Joyce's The Dead. No matter the fullness of the present, it will never eclipse the romantic past…Conescu's characters are resilient. Reading through their struggles is an exercise in catharsis and compassion."

About the Author

William Conescu was born in New York and raised in New Orleans. He graduated from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and earned an MFA in Creative Writing at North Carolina State University. He is the author of the novels Kara Was Here and Being Written, and his short stories have appeared in The Gettysburg Review, New Letters, and other publications. Conescu and his family live in Chapel Hill, North Carolina.

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