Lecturer Katherine Howe of the American Studies Program released her YA novel "The Appearance of Annie Van Sinderen" Sept. 15.
This novel follows her New York Times bestseller novel "The Physick Book of Deliverance Dane," and her YA debut novel "Conversion," which has been published in 25 languages.
"The Appearance of Annie Van Sinderen" combines Howe’s interests in historical fiction and in visual and material culture into a haunted love story. An aspiring filmmaker arrives in New York City for a summer term at NYU, and finds himself falling in love with an “otherworldly” but beautiful girl. He notices that she seems a little out of place and a little distant, but not in a million years could he have predicted the truth - the beautiful girl is a ghost still searching for the truth about her death in 1825.
“I like to imagine what it would be like if we could draw the curtain of the present back just long enough to get a glimpse of what was there before,” said Howe on the fusion of the historical, contemporary, and supernatural in her novel. “… Our understanding of how the world works changes according to our historical moment. What one time considers supernatural another time considers real. Fiction is a wonderful way of exploring different mindsets.”
Howe also most recently received the 2015 Massachusetts Book Award in middle reader/YA literature for her novel “Conversion,” which chronicles the chilling Salem Witch Trial-like occurrences at a modern day high school.
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