Cover

Back Cover Text

A compulsive debut of literary suspense, Goodnight Stranger follows one young woman held captive by her past and the stranger whose arrival unearths long-buried family secrets.

Lydia and Lucas Moore are in their late twenties when a stranger enters their small world on Wolf Island. Lydia, the responsible sister, has cared for her pathologically shy brother, Lucas, ever since their mom’s death a decade before. They live together, comfortable yet confined, in their family house by the sea, shadowed by events from their childhood.

When Lydia sees the stranger step off the ferry, she feels an immediate connection to him. Lucas is convinced the man, Cole Anthony, is the reincarnation of their baby brother, who died when they were young. Cole knows their mannerisms, their home, the topography of the island—what else could that mean? Though Lydia is doubtful, she can’t deny she is drawn to his magnetism, his energy, and his warmth.

To discover the truth about Cole, Lydia must finally face her anxiety about leaving the island and summon the strength to challenge Cole’s grip on her family’s past and her brother. A deliciously alluring read, Goodnight Stranger is a story of choices and regrets, courage and loneliness, and the ways we hold on to those we love.

Praise for Goodnight Stranger

Praise for Goodnight Stranger

“Somewhere the ghosts of Shirley Jackson and the Henry James of The Turn of the Screw are smiling, because a wildly talented young writer has joined their lineage. What a taut, keenly intelligent, and provocative debut Goodnight Stranger is. Deeply compelling and enjoyable, suffused with a genuinely thrilling new mode of literary energy.”

—George Saunders, #1 New York Times bestselling author of Lincoln in the Bardo

“Miciah Bay Gault is one of the most naturally talented writers I’ve ever read, and Goodnight Stranger is a testament to the capacious scope of her talent. This book has the exceptionally rare quality of being at once lyrical and a page-turner, finely-wrought and hot with speed. This is a monster debut.”

—Daniel Torday, acclaimed author of The Last Flight of Poxl West and Boomer1

“Miciah Bay Gault has written a perfect novel. A story as propulsive as a thriller, characters rich and vivid enough that I will be haunted by them for years, and prose so immaculate that every sentence gleams. Here is a debut that instantly places its author in the realm of Donna Tartt and Celeste Ng—books you can’t put down that are true works of art.”

—Melissa Febos, author of Whip Smart and Abandon Me

“Goodnight Stranger unfolds close to the bone, deep in the gut, right on the edge of every nerve. Bravo to Miciah Bay Gault on a brilliant look at loss, at family, at identity, and at all the many loves we feel.”

—Robin Black, author of Life Drawing