The Homecoming

Zoë Apostolides

Publisher: Salt

Summary

The Homecoming is Zoë Apostolides's debut novel. Quietly disturbing, it tells the story of Ellen, a young ghost-writer sent to record the memoirs of an elderly woman living in a remote Northumberland manor. Elver House is dilapidated, its faded beauty fading to ruin.
The assignment seems simple enough. Ellen will spend a week conducting interviews at the wild and sprawling estate – far from the quaint country cottage she had imagined – before returning to London to write Miss Carey's autobiography. She digs deeper into its history, its lore and mystique and its occupant's increasingly bizarre behaviour. Clearly it isn't just the past that's haunting Miss Carey. And in unravelling the tangled threads of the older woman's story, Ellen too must confront more about herself than she bargained for.
Part mystery, part ghost story, this is a story about isolation, memory, spirits and secrets, intergenerational friendship and motherhood.

Available since: 07/07/2025.

Print length: 256 pages.

Other books that might interest you

The Mandeville Shadow - Totally...

Callie Langridge

“Bewitching! I was so into this series that I lost track of time… Everything was perfect – emotions, heartbreak, drama and long-lost memories.” Reader review, ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

1935. Kate Durrant is helping her mother move out of the little cottage her parents used to share, until her father’s heartbreaking death. Full of guilt that she couldn’t visit her dad in his last moments, Kate now has only memories for company. Memories and… something else. Since she was a small child, Kate has been able to see and feel the history of objects she touches. She’s always kept her gift secret, not knowing fully what it is, or how far it goes.

One evening, while visiting her father’s grave, Kate wanders into the shadowy woods behind the church. Following the mossy paths, she realises she’s lost her way just as she stumbles upon the wrought-iron gates of Hill House, home to the illustrious Mandeville family.

Welcomed in and offered a position on the staff as a housemaid, Kate discovers that all is not right within the walls of the splendid manor house. As her gift begins to unspool the history of the Mandeville’s home, she realises that an unspeakable tragedy is fated to befall the family heir. Kate also grows increasingly close to Bertie Morrison, the Estate Manager who has known Hill House his whole life. With the family oblivious to their desperate peril, Bertie helps Kate understand her deepening connection to the Mandevilles.

With Halloween approaching – when the veil between worlds is at its thinnest – a special visitor from the house’s past appears just as a shadow falls over Hill House.

The clock is ticking… will Kate's unique gift, combined with the strength of a new love and a timeless love from beyond the grave, be enough to save the Mandeville legacy?

What readers are saying about The Mandeville Shadow:

“Absolutely loved this riveting read… This is a compelling story that kept me engaged from beginning to end. The characters all gelled perfectly, and the story racked up the tension, drawing me in and not letting me go. Highly recommended.” Reader review, ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

“So heartbreaking. A must read.” Reader review, ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

“The first two books were very enjoyable, but this one was even better… a brilliant, captivating story. I really hope there's more to come.” Reader review, ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

“I loved this story, it has the right mix of mystery and intrigue to give me a very happy reading experience.” Reader review, ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

“Wow! Another spellbinding story by Callie Langridge!… exceptionally written, creatively imagined and exquisitely memorable... could not put it down until I had read the last word! Amazing writing with never a lull or dull moment. A must read of 2023! I highly recommend this enchanting novel and give it 5 stars.” Reader review, ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Show book

A Bewitched Ship

W. Clark Russell

Step aboard the haunted decks of the Ocean King, once a proud Indiaman and now reduced to a coal-carrying collier. In W. Clark Russell’s chilling maritime tale, second mate Mr. Green recalls the ship’s fall from luxury to decay—and the ghostly presence said to stalk her rigging and forepeak. From whispered voices calling sailors by name, to phantom figures glimpsed aloft under the red moon, the voyage grows darker with every passing night. Blurring the line between superstition and ventriloquism, A Bewitched Ship captures both the grandeur of a vessel’s past and the eerie fate that clings to ships long at sea. A gripping sea ghost story from one of the Victorian era’s most celebrated nautical novelists.

Show book

Count Cagliostro

Alexei Tolstoy

When a young man goes from the demands and rigors of the army to a luxurious and serene country living, his mind is bound to wander where it should not. Such is the fate of Alexei Alexeyevich Fedyashev, who becomes so absorbed in his newfound idleness that he falls in love with an old portrait. 
When the famous conjurer and medium Count Cagliostro accidentally ends up at Fedyashev's escape, the young man begs him to bring his dream to reality. "Be careful what you wish for," is the lesson young Alexei has yet to learn - and how!

Show book

The Hanging Stranger

Philip K. Dick

Step into a chilling reality with The Hanging Stranger by Philip K. Dick—a gripping tale of paranoia, conformity, and the terrifying truths hidden in plain sight. When Ed Loyce notices something disturbingly out of place in his small town, he's plunged into a nightmare where no one else seems to care. Is he losing his mind, or has the world itself gone mad? This thought-provoking audiobook blends psychological horror with dystopian suspense, keeping you on edge until the very last word. Perfect for fans of dark science fiction and mind-bending thrillers. Listen now and uncover the stranger hanging in the shadows.

Show book

The Abominations Of Yondo

Clark Ashton Smith

The Abominations Of Yondo - Brought to you by Altrusian Grace Media and narrated by Matthew Schmitz
Clark Ashton Smith (January 13, 1893 – August 14, 1961) was an American writer and artist. He achieved early local recognition, largely through the enthusiasm of George Sterling, for traditional verse in the vein of Swinburne. As a poet, Smith is grouped with the West Coast Romantics alongside Joaquin Miller, Sterling, and Nora May French and remembered as "The Last of the Great Romantics" and "The Bard of Auburn". Smith's work was praised by his contemporaries. H. P. Lovecraft stated that "in sheer daemonic strangeness and fertility of conception, Clark Ashton Smith is perhaps unexcelled", and Ray Bradbury said that Smith "filled my mind with incredible worlds, impossibly beautiful cities, and still more fantastic creatures".
Smith was one of "the big three of Weird Tales, with Robert E. Howard and H. P. Lovecraft", though some readers objected to his morbidness and violation of pulp traditions. The fantasy writer and critic L. Sprague de Camp said of him that "nobody since Poe has so loved a well-rotted corpse".[3] Smith was a member of the Lovecraft circle, and his literary friendship with Lovecraft lasted from 1922 until Lovecraft's death in 1937. His work is marked by an extraordinarily rich and ornate vocabulary, a cosmic perspective and a vein of sardonic and sometimes ribald humor.
Of his writing style, Smith stated: "My own conscious ideal has been to delude the reader into accepting an impossibility, or series of impossibilities, by means of a sort of verbal black magic, in the achievement of which I make use of prose-rhythm, metaphor, simile, tone-color, counter-point, and other stylistic resources, like a sort of incantation."

Show book

The Diary of Mr Poynter

M. R. James

A gentleman stumbles upon a curious old diary—an innocent discovery, or the key to something far more disturbing? In The Diary of Mr. Poynter, M. R. James once again conjures an atmosphere thick with dread, beauty, and the uncanny. This is a tale where the most ordinary object can become a gateway to forces beyond reason, and where curiosity may lead to quiet terror. With James's trademark subtlety and scholarly unease, the story whispers rather than screams—unsettling the soul long after the final word. Haunting, intricate, and elegantly unnerving.

Show book