Last Day of a Prior Life: A Novel

“A ghost story without ghosts that, beyond its formal elegance, explores loneliness, the cycles in which our lives revolve, and the immeasurable challenges of affection.”—Mariana Enríquez, author of Our Share of the Night

In this contemporary “ghost story without a ghost,” award-winning author Andrés Barba eerily explores how the past can hold us captive, as a woman encounters a compelling unblinking boy in an empty house.

While eagerly preparing a house for prospective buyers, a woman finds herself face to face with a strange sight: a seven-year-old boy with an otherworldly stare. Seemingly appearing and disappearing before her again and again, she realizes that the boy wants something from her. Choosing to leave her everyday world behind, the woman steps through the looking glass, inadvertently nurturing a disturbing co-dependence and discovering a suspended time, a loop, and another life in the process.

In this “ghost story without ghosts,” award-winning author Andrés Barba demonstrates an exquisite talent for dissecting human intimacy, excavating the links between past and present, the objects and spaces we leave behind, and what must not be lost or cannot be forgiven. Richly atmospheric and mesmerizing, Last Day of a Prior Life is a concise, disturbing, and dazzling novel that calls to mind the gothic tales of Shirley Jackson and Henry James.

Translated from the Spanish by Lisa Dillman

“A ghost story without ghosts that, beyond its formal elegance, explores loneliness, the cycles in which our lives revolve, and the immeasurable challenges of affection.” - Mariana Enríquez, author of Our Share of the Night, on Last Day of a Prior Life

“Every now and then, an author not only documents reality, but creates an entirely new one, one that illuminates our darkest feelings. Kafka did it. Bruno Schulz did it. And now Spanish writer Andrés Barba has done it too.” - Edmund White, author of A Boy’s Own Story and The Loves of My Life

“Wholly compelling.” - Colm Tóibín, New York Times bestselling author of Brooklyn and Long Island, on A Luminous Republic

“A terrifying masterpiece . . . Andrés is a write of extraordinary talent.” - Omar El Akkad, New York Times bestselling author of One Day, Everyone Will Have Always Been Against This, on A Luminous Republic

“A rapturous fable and a ruinous forecast of the havoc that comes from civil inaction.” - Idra Novey, author of Take What You Need and Ways To Disappear, on A Luminous Republic

“One of the best books I've ever read . . . There is an air of magic, black and white, lingering around every page of this epic novel of 192 pages, like gun smoke after a shootout. ” - Edmund White, author of A Boy’s Own Story and The Loves of My Life

“At first this book will scare you, but after that you feel something much deeper, disturbing and luminous.” - Samanta Schweblin, Author of the National Book Award winning Seven Empty Houses, on A Luminous Republic