American Ghost--Book Review

American Ghost by Hannah Nordhaus is a new non-fiction book that is part family history, part psychic research.  The author becomes intrigued at a young age by stories of her great-great-grandmother, Julia Staab, haunting her former family home in Santa Fe, New Mexico.  Nordhaus becomes determined not so much to figure out whether or not a ghost really exists, though she is drawn to that mystery from time to time, but to uncover the real life feelings and problems experienced by her ancestor.  What unfolds is an amazing story of the Jewish presence in the Old Wild West, what happens eventually to the family left behind in Germany, and an intimate personal history of a family.  Nordhaus discovers that although her great-great-grandfather was not the monster ghost hunters made him out to be, he did have demons of his own that may have led him to ignore his wife. In the end, Julia Staab remains somewhat out of reach, because she left no surviving writings of her own, but what is obvious is that she did lead a life, a strange combination of a passionate and sheltered one that must have been common to women of that era. I highly recommend this book to anyone interested in families, American history, Jewish history, women's history, and psychic research.  It is available in our New Non-fiction section under 133.109 Nord.H

Submitted by Marian Bieniek