To save his family's failing funeral homeand his own chance at a queer love storya reluctant clairvoyant must embrace the gift he long ignored in this poignant and tender debut.
Part romance, part ghost story, part Jewish family epic, Rules for Ghosting is a meditation on life, death, and healing that is at turns bitingly funny and deeply moving. Shelly Jay Shore is an immense talent.Anita Kelly, author of Love & Other Disasters
Ezra Friedman sees ghosts, which made growing up in a funeral home complicated. It might have been easier if his grandfathers ghost didnt give him scathing looks of disapproval as he went through a second, HRT-induced puberty, or if he didnt have the pressure of all those relativesliving and deadjudging every choice he makes. Its no wonder that Ezra runs as far away from the family business as humanly possible.
But when the floor of his dream job drops out from under him and his mother uses the family Passover seder to tell everyone shes running off with the rabbis wife, Ezra finds himself back in the thick of it. With his parents marriage imploding and the Friedman Family Memorial Chapel on the brink of financial ruin, Ezra agrees to step into his mothers shoes and help out . . . which means long days surrounded by ghosts that no one else can see.
And then theres his unfortunate crush on Jonathan, the handsome funeral home volunteer . . . who just happens to live downstairs from Ezras new apartment . . . and the appearance of the ghost of Jonathans gone-too-soon husband, Ben, who is breaking every spectral rule that Ezra knows.
Because Ben can speak. He can move. And as Ezra tries to keep his family together and his heart from getting broken, he realizes that theres more than one way to be haunted���and more than one way to become a ghost.
Genre: Literary Fiction
Part romance, part ghost story, part Jewish family epic, Rules for Ghosting is a meditation on life, death, and healing that is at turns bitingly funny and deeply moving. Shelly Jay Shore is an immense talent.Anita Kelly, author of Love & Other Disasters
Ezra Friedman sees ghosts, which made growing up in a funeral home complicated. It might have been easier if his grandfathers ghost didnt give him scathing looks of disapproval as he went through a second, HRT-induced puberty, or if he didnt have the pressure of all those relativesliving and deadjudging every choice he makes. Its no wonder that Ezra runs as far away from the family business as humanly possible.
But when the floor of his dream job drops out from under him and his mother uses the family Passover seder to tell everyone shes running off with the rabbis wife, Ezra finds himself back in the thick of it. With his parents marriage imploding and the Friedman Family Memorial Chapel on the brink of financial ruin, Ezra agrees to step into his mothers shoes and help out . . . which means long days surrounded by ghosts that no one else can see.
And then theres his unfortunate crush on Jonathan, the handsome funeral home volunteer . . . who just happens to live downstairs from Ezras new apartment . . . and the appearance of the ghost of Jonathans gone-too-soon husband, Ben, who is breaking every spectral rule that Ezra knows.
Because Ben can speak. He can move. And as Ezra tries to keep his family together and his heart from getting broken, he realizes that theres more than one way to be haunted���and more than one way to become a ghost.
Genre: Literary Fiction
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