Cover of Ghost Eater: A Novel

Ghost Eater: A Novel

A riveting thriller,Ghost Eater marks the introduction of an intense new voice in

seafaring adventure.

Moored in a wintry Asian harbor at the turn of the twentieth century, Captain Ulysses Vanders experiences a revelation. A ferryman brings a mysterious gift—a wine at once rare and familiar that brings the sailor back to a moment in Sumatra thirty years before. "I closed my eyes, remembering where I had last tasted this liquor, remembering back across the years, remembering how steady the hand had been that held out the cup to me, and how desperate the circumstances. With a stab, her face rose before me—beautiful, tantalizing, terrible to behold."

Read more

This haunting memory leads the sailor back to his first command and a desperate river journey to rescue missionaries along a remote jungle river. Captain of an aging steamboat, Vanders soon finds himself burdened with a set of unexpected, mysterious passengers, each traveling to the mission outpost known as "Light of the World" for reasons of his or her own. The island world Vanders discovers is a ghostly place, darkly lit with the flames of social upheaval, a world of superstition and strife, as age-old ways of life are swept away in the murderous rampage of a tribe gone mad. At the edge of civilization, the young American captain learns not only the challenge of command but the courage to confront his own illusions, beautiful and terrible to behold.

Audience
adult
Length
medium · 320 pages

Click a tag to see books like this one that share it. Point at it (on a phone, tap it) for less of it instead.

Read it? Sign in to help tag it.

Liked Ghost Eater: A Novel? Here’s where I’d start.

These suit anyone who liked Ghost Eater: A Novel. Sign in and mark a few books for picks shaped around your own taste.

  1. Indonesia: Archipelago of Fear Shares Indonesia, history
  2. The Captain and the Girl Shares ship captains, missionaries, historical fiction
  3. Fundamentals Of Guerrilla Warfare Shares Indonesia
  4. Ring of Fire: An Indonesia Odyssey Shares Indonesia, adventure

“If you want more of the same (adventure about psychological), start with these.”

  1. House of Glass
  2. Child of All Nations
  3. Engineers of Happy Land: Technology and Nationalism in a Colony
  4. A History of Modern Indonesia

“If it was the Indonesia that hooked you, try one of these.”

  1. Normal is Boring
  2. The Flowing Tide
  3. In the Time of Madness: Indonesia on the Edge of Chaos
  4. My Friend the Fanatic

“These start from a similar idea, even if they go somewhere else with it.”

  1. Remembering the Good War
  2. The Last Place God Made
  3. Sailors on the Inward Sea
  4. Witness