Teenagers philosophize on the nature of ontology, while fearing there's a ghost in the old mill they're stuck in; anxieties over finitude and terrorism are scrutinized; a man encounters an old friend in the unlikeliest of places; nineteenth-century inventor Sigismund Mohr is vividly brought back from obscurity; and two journalists travel to Kenya for a conference, where one of them has a paranoid breakdown. It Is an Honest Ghost is a funny and often eerie collection that explores what lies beyond mortality—if anything, that is.

John Goldbach is the author of The Devil and the Detective (Coach House, 2013) and the collection Selected Blackouts (Insomniac, 2009). He lives in Montreal, Quebec.