Metadata:
Publication date: February 7, 2023
Print edition: 5″ x 8″ perfect bound trade paperback
Page count: 168
ISBN: 978-1-915531-02-5
Price (paper): US$18.95
E-book formats: ePub, Kindle, PDF
Word count: 46,000
eISBN: 978-1-915531-03-2
Price (e-book): US$8.99

Synopsis:
After Simone learns that her ex-husband Guy has died unexpectedly at the age of fifty, her only regret is that she didn’t expose his affairs when she had the chance. But when a woman asks her to help her disrupt his Celebration of Life planned in Northern Cyprus, Simone wonders if she has a last chance to reveal Guy’s hypocrisy. Accompanied by her best friend, Simone arrives in Cyprus; however, the circumstances surrounding Guy’s death become increasingly mysterious. Worse, since Guy’s death, Simone has been haunted by Guy and the ghosts of her loved ones warning her of impending danger. As the Celebration approaches and Simone’s mental state deteriorates, she must decide who she should trust and who she must betray in order to save herself.

Logline:
Set in Turkish-occupied Cyprus, a woman battles grief and ghosts as she plans to disrupt her ex-husband’s Celebration of Life ceremony.

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Blurbage:

• In this elegant novel of wanderlust – both physical and spiritual – Sybil Baker deftly conjures ghosts, luscious prose, and the striking scenery of Cyprus to chart the course of a woman’s journey through memory, heartbreak, anger, revenge and insight. ~ Evan Fallenberg, author of The Parting Gift.
• This slim page-turner is deceptively complex: part lush travelogue, part twisty love story, part murder mystery. I loved getting to travel along with Simone and Agnes, characters so lively they nearly leap off the page. In APPARITIONS, Sybil Baker has spun a tale of how our pasts can haunt us, and what happens when women choose alternative paths for their lives. ~ Amy Shearn, award-winning author of Unseen City, The Mermaid of Brooklyn, and other novels.
• “Sybil Baker has the enviable ability to populate her work with characters who feels so nuances and real that you can’t believe you haven’t always known these people, that they haven’t always been a part of your life. And when I finished this beautiful story, I found myself unable to forget them.” ~ Kevin Wilson, author of Now is Not the Time to Panic and Nothing to See Here.
• In spare and emotionally heightened prose that calls to mind the work of Annie Ernaux, Sybil Baker’s new novel, Apparitions, is an intense psychological portrait of Simone, a woman haunted by her past. On a trip to Cyprus for her ex-husband’s funeral and bent on revenge, she is visited by a parade of ghosts who warn her not to be misled, paralyzing her with indecision. The book is a story of betrayal, but also one of disappointment and strangling regret. It’s a deeply satisfying mystery, too, as Simone seeks to understand what really happened to the man she once loved. ~Clifford Garstang, author of What the Zhang Boys Know and The Shaman of Turtle Valley.

Author bio:
Sybil Baker is author of four other works of fiction, including most recently While You Were Gone. Her essay collection Immigration Essays was the 2018-2019 Read2Achieve first year selection at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga. A UC Foundation Professor at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga and faculty of the Yale Writers’ Workshop, Sybil received a 2017 Individual Artist’s Fellowship from the Tennessee Arts Commission for her work.