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Content snapshot
Flag an inaccuracy →What's in this book, at a glance — five things readers want to know before they start.
Violence
A lot
Violence including a murder during a labor strike, a fight in a homeless camp, and a killing
Language
Some
Period-appropriate profanity and rough language throughout
Sexual Content
Barely any
Brief references to sexuality; a prostitute character
Substance Use
A lot
Pervasive alcohol use — Francis is a chronic alcoholic; drunkenness is depicted throughout
Emotional Intensity
Very heavy
Harrowing guilt manifested as literal ghosts; survivor's shame, the psychology of chronic addiction and poverty
What this book is about
Francis Phelan, a former baseball player and now homeless drunk, returns to Albany on Halloween 1938. The ghosts of those he has killed — his infant son dropped on the pavement, a man killed during a trolley strike, other casualties of his violent life — walk beside him in the streets. Kennedy's Pulitzer Prize-winning novel is both a gritty Depression-era portrait and a spiritual reckoning with guilt and the persistence of the dead.
Notes for sensitive readers
Reader-flagged moments and themes that may affect your experience.
Graphic guilt and haunting by those killed
Alcoholism depicted throughout
Violence including murder
Baby death in backstory
Reader Verification
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