A Haunting on the Hill

A Haunting on the Hill by Elizabeth Hand is a novel published by Mulholland Books/Little, Brown in 2023, featuring 326 pages in English. This story marks the first-ever authorized return to the world of Shirley Jackson’s The Haunting of Hill House, exploring themes of isolation and longing. The narrative follows Holly Sherwin, a struggling playwright who, after receiving a grant for her play Witching Night, discovers the eerie Hill House during a weekend getaway. Drawn to its haunting beauty, she rents the mansion with her girlfriend, Nisa, and a troupe of actors, hoping to find the perfect environment to develop her work.
As the group settles into Hill House, they encounter unsettling phenomena that challenge their relationships and creativity. Strange creatures, disturbing sounds, and a sense of shifting time create an atmosphere of suspense and psychological tension. The characters grapple not only with their personal ghosts but also with the house itself, which seems to harbor its own secrets. This edition invites readers into a gothic thriller that intertwines the past and present, offering a fresh perspective on the classic haunted house narrative.
Official synopsis Publisher
From award-winning author Elizabeth Hand comes the first-ever novel authorized to return to the world of Shirley Jackson’s The Haunting of Hill House—an “eerily beautiful, strangely seductive, and genuinely upsetting” (Alix E. Harrow) new story of isolation and longing perfect for our present time.
**Named a Best Book of the Year by The New Yorker, The Washington Post, and Harper’s Bazaar**
Open the door . . . .
Holly Sherwin has been a struggling playwright for years, but now, after receiving a grant to develop her play Witching Night, she may finally be close to her big break. All she needs is time and space to bring her vision to life. When she stumbles across Hill House on a weekend getaway upstate, she is immediately taken in by the mansion, nearly hidden outside a remote village. It’s enormous, old, and ever-so eerie–the perfect place to develop and rehearse her play.
Despite her own hesitations, Holly’s girlfriend, Nisa, agrees to join Holly in renting the house for a month, and soon a troupe of actors, each with ghosts of their own, arrive. Yet as they settle in, the house’s peculiarities are made known: strange creatures stalk the grounds, disturbing sounds echo throughout the halls, and time itself seems to shift. All too soon, Holly and her friends find themselves at odds not just with one another, but with the house itself. It seems something has been waiting in Hill House all these years, and it no longer intends to walk alone . . .
“A fitting–and frightening–homage.” —New York Times Book Review
“It’s thrilling to find this is a true hybrid of these two ingenious women’s work–a novel with all the chills of Jackson that also highlights the contemporary flavor and evocative writing of Hand.” —Washington Post
“Only the brilliant Elizabeth Hand could so expertly honor Jackson’s rage, wit, and vision.” –Paul Tremblay
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