From the critically acclaimed and award-winning author of Lesser Known Monsters of the 21st Century comes The Valley of Vengeful Ghosts—an eerie, spellbinding novel of grief and guilt, with a razor-sharp eye for the absurdity and melancholy of the internet age.
ISBN
9781963108699
Language
English
Page count
240
Dimensions
5-1/2 x 8-1/2
About the Book
In the aftermath of her mother’s death, Eleanor is unmoored. For years, her mother orchestrated every detail of her life—from meals, to laundry, to finances—so that Eleanor could focus on her career as a therapist. Left to navigate the world on her own, Eleanor clings to her mother’s final directive: use her inheritance to buy a house.
Desperate to obey her mother one last time, but finding few options she can afford, Eleanor impulsively buys a model home in a valley-turned-construction site, a picturesque development steeped in a shadowy history. It feels like a fresh start, until the rain comes—an endless, torrential downpour. As water seeps in through the house’s cracks, the line between what is real and what is not begins to blur. Haunted by the stories of her patients, a stream of workmen and bureaucrats she can’t trust, and visions of ghosts from her past and present, Eleanor’s reality unravels, and she is forced to reckon with the secrets she’s buried and the desperate choices she’s made.
GENERAL PRAISE FOR KIM FU:
“Fu’s fiction is mesmerizing.”
—R. O. Kwon
“Kim Fu writes with grace, wit, mischief, daring, and her own deep weird phosphorescent understanding.”
—Kevin Brockmeier
Reviews
A Most Anticipated Book of 2026 from TIME, Book Riot, and Chicago Review of Books
Addictive…. I looked up from this book and saw everything around me in higher definition.
“Alluring. . . . a vivid portrait of mental fragility in the face of such an overwhelming situation, one that will resonate with any new homeowner.”
“There’s a tingle of Poltergeist déjà vu in Kim Fu’s disquieting novel.”
“Fu is the writer to tell an immersive story grounded in earthly issues and haunted by ghosts.”
“Think Julia Armfield’s Private Rights. Think Nicky Gonzalez’s Mayra . . . wrapped in ghosts, grief, and the price of wanting more than you’re ready to handle.”
“Fu’s titular ghosts, both living and dead, continue to deny Eleanor any semblance of home sweet home. Fu hauntingly, elliptically unravels their vengeful agendas.”
Kim Fu
Kim Fu is the author of two novels, a collection of poetry, and most recently, the story collection Lesser Known Monsters of the 21st Century, winner of the Washington State Book Award, the Pacific Northwest Book Award, and the Danuta Gleed Literary Award, as well as a finalist for the Scotiabank Giller Prize, the Ignyte Awards, and the Shirley Jackson Awards. Fu lives in Seattle, Washington.
