These Ghosts Are Family

“Maisy Card is a great writer. Her compelling debut evokes the richness of culture and the inevitable impact of generational secrets, full of magnificent characters that continue to haunt me.” –Nicole Dennis-Benn, author of Patsy and Here Comes the Sun

“Every family’s got secrets but Abel Paisley’s secret is monstrous and mesmerizing. These Ghosts are Family begins with energy and intrigue and, really, never lets up. This book is painful and shocking but it can be funny as hell, too. What a talented writer. Maisy Card has written one of the best debut novels I’ve read in many years.”
–Victor LaValle, author of The Changeling

“I suspect many readers will talk about the consequences of unspoken generational trauma in These Ghosts Are Family, but I’m most amazed by the deft use of characterization, place and embodiment here. This book is a master class in writing home as a collection of odd spirits and a mobile metaphor.”
–Kiese Laymon, author of Long Division

“In this fascinating debut, Maisy Card reveals her spectacular range and scope. Part immigrant narrative, part ghost story, part historical fiction, part family drama, These Ghosts Are Family explores and illuminates the complexities of race and lineage in Jamaica and the United States. This is a bold, gripping, compassionate book.”
–Helen Phillips, author of The Need

“Maisy Card’s relentlessly inventive debut is a thrilling exploration of family, memory and which pasts we choose to haunt us.”
–Kaitlyn Greenidge, author of We Love You, Charlie Freeman

“How do actions reverberate across multiple generations? In Maisy Card’s stunning novel, people live and die and lose and love and make their way through this chaotic but profound experience we call life. Her luminous prose lights a way even in the darkest moments. These Ghosts Are Family will haunt you long after you finish it.”
–Michele Filgate, author of What My Mother and I Don’t Talk About

“Written with the brand of Jamaican humor I know and love, These Ghosts Are Family is a book I didn’t know I needed to read, which might be the best kind of book. Maisy Card is a wonderful arrival for Caribbean literature.”
–Alexia Arthurs, author of How to Love a Jamaican

“These Ghosts are Family by Maisy Card will enchant readers completely with a fascinating cast of characters, each more bewitching than the last. This book is destined to become 2020’s most beloved debut novel.”
–Julia Fierro, author of The Gypsy Moth Summer

Maisy Card holds an MFA in Fiction from Brooklyn College and is a public librarian. Her writing has appeared in Lenny Letter, School Library Journal, Agni, Sycamore Review, Liars’ League NYC, and Ampersand Review. Maisy was born in St. Catherine, Jamaica, but was raised in Queens, New York. Maisy earned an MLIS from Rutgers University and a BA in English and American Studies from Wesleyan University. She is the author of These Ghosts Are Family.

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