Sara Paretsky: Ghost Country (USA 1999)

From the Publisher:
They come from different worlds and meet at a time of crisis for all of them. Luisa, a drunken diva fallen on hard times, discovers on Chicago's streets a drama greater than any she has experienced onstage. Madeleine, a homeless woman, sees the Virgin Mary's blood seeping through a concrete wall beneath a luxury hotel. Mara, a rebellious adolescent cast out by her wealthy grandfather, becomes the catalyst for a war between the haves and have-nots as she searches among society's castoffs for the mother she never knew. As the three women fight for their right to live and worship beneath the hotel, they find an ally in Hector Tammuz, an idealistic young psychiatrist risking his career to treat the homeless regardless of the cost.

Sara Paretsky: Ghost Country. Delta, ISBN: 0385333366 (June, 1999), 400 p., $16.00.

Sara Paretsky: Ghost Country (UK 1998)

From the Publisher:
Luisa Montcrief was once a great opera singer. Now she is a drunken diva forced onto the streets of Chicago. Madeline is a homeless woman who believes the Virgin Mary lives in a wall in the carpark beneath a plush Chicago hotel. Mara is a troubled young woman whose mother abandoned her at birth. The three women converge on the car park to battle with the hotel for their right to live and worship there. Then when Starr appears, enigmatic, repellent to some, erotic to others, miracles start to happen and the city is quite unprepared for the outcome...

Sara Paretsky: Ghost Country. Hamish Hamilton, ISBN: 0241132630 (June, 1999), 386 p., £15.99 (?).

Sara Paretsky: Ghost Country (USA 1998)

From the Publisher:
Sara Paretsky's genius made Chicago private eye V.I. Warshawski a household name. Now the New York Times bestselling author explores an unseen corner of the city she loves. In Ghost Country she has written a parable for the millennium, a powerful, haunting novel of magic and miracles, of four troubled people who meet beneath Chicago's shadowy streets--and of the woman whose mysterious appearance changes all of their lives forever.

They come from different worlds and meet at a time of crisis for all of them. Luisa, a drunken diva fallen on hard times, discovers on Chicago's streets a drama greater than any she has experienced onstage. Madeleine, a homeless woman, sees the Virgin Mary's blood seeping through a concrete wall beneath a luxury hotel. Mara, a rebellious adolescent cast out by her wealthy grandfather, becomes the catalyst for a war between the haves and have-nots as she searches among society's castoffs for the mother she never knew.

As the three women fight for their right to live and worship beneath the hotel, they find an ally in Hector Tammuz, an idealistic young psychiatrist risking his career to treat the homeless regardless of the cost. Tensions in the city are escalating when a mysterious woman appears during a violent storm. Erotic to some, repellent to others, she never speaks; the street people call her Starr. And as she slowly transforms their lives, miracles begin to happen in a city completely unprepared for the outcome.

In this extraordinary novel, Sara Paretsky gives voice to the dispossessed, to men and women struggling to bury the ghosts of the past, fighting for their lives in a world hungry for miracles, terrified of change. A magical, unforgettable story of myth and madness, hope and revelation, Ghost Country is Sara Paretsky's most eloquent and ambitious work yet.

Sara Paretsky: Ghost Country. Delacorte Press, ISBN: 0385299338 (June, 1998), 386 p., $24.95.