The Saturday Night Ghost Club

2020 Longlist

Growing up in 1980s Niagara Falls –  a seedy but magical, slightly haunted place – Jake Baker spends most of his time with his uncle Calvin, a kind but eccentric enthusiast of occult artefacts and conspiracy theories. The summer Jake turns twelve, he befriends a pair of siblings new to town, and so Calvin decides to initiate them all into the “Saturday Night Ghost Club”. But as the summer goes on, what begins as a seemingly light-hearted project may ultimately uncover more than any of its members had imagined. With the alternating warmth and sadness of the best coming-of-age stories, The Saturday Night Ghost Club is a note-perfect novel that poignantly examines the haunting mutability of memory and storytelling, as well as the experiences that form the people we become, and establishes Craig Davidson as a remarkable literary talent.

About the Author

Craig Davidson was born in St.Catharines, Ontario. He has published three previous books of literary fiction: Rust and Bone, The Fighter, and Sarah Court. Davidson is a graduate of the Iowa Writers Workshop, and his articles and journalism have been published in the National Post, Esquire and The Washington Post, among other places. He lives in Toronto

Librarian’s Comments

This coming-of-age story, filtered through the melancholic perspective of the adult protagonist, “poignantly examines the fragility and resilience of mind, body and human spirit, as well as the haunting mutability of memory and story” (Knopf Canada). “Davidson writes with a stealthy capacity for pace and plot exercised in a cinematic array of places” (Noah Richler, National Post). Davidson is a consummate story teller. Wonderful writing displays his mastery of creating utterly convincing, yet unconventional settings and believable, growing characters. Shortlisted for the Rogers Writers’ Trust Fiction Prize.  Saint John Free Public Library, Canada