Status
Available
Call number
Collection
Publication
Houghton Mifflin Harcourt (2006), Edition: First Edition, Hardcover, 288 pages
Description
Part psychological drama, part mystery, part modern ghost story, The Inhabited World is a deeply affecting novel of love, loss, and longing. Evan Molloy has been dead for nearly ten years when the mysterious, fragile Maureen moves into the bungalow near Puget Sound where he once lived. Caught between this world and the next, Evan cannot remember the events that led to his death, but in Maureen’s presence he begins to recall his life more clearly. As Maureen tries valiantly to restart her life after a recently ended love affair, she unknowingly offers her otherworldly housemate a sort of redemption he never could have predicted.
User reviews
LibraryThing member worldsedge
Sigh, yet another novel that starts off with an interesting premise, seemingly interesting characters and then slides downhill to an ending that's deeply unsatisfying. Evan Molloy committed suicide ten years ago and his spirit hangs around his old house. He watches with interest the comings and
Show More
goings of the various people who lived there after him down to the present, when a woman moves in, escaping an unhappy love affair. Interspersed with various flashbacks of Molloy's life, his afterlife, he watches her try to get her own life together. And that's about it. Show Less
LibraryThing member bobbieharv
Despite its unlikely premise, that the dead (suicide) hero still inhabits his house, this was really good. He takes us back to his and the new owner of his houses's failed relationships in an engrossing way. I'll have to read more of his stuff.
LibraryThing member vickiphdc
"Mine was a surmountable despair. I just didn't. Surmount it." You feel the joy of language the delight of using a work like surmount, the small quiet thril of that heart stopping hesitation.
Death like life is sill a time for learning and self discovery for Evan. His redemption is found when he
Death like life is sill a time for learning and self discovery for Evan. His redemption is found when he
Show More
finds the answers to a life-ill spent and he imparts some of that knowledge to the lost woman who shares his home. Show Less
LibraryThing member Cheryl_in_CC_NV
Long was apparently tired of being a writer's writer, so he read some Anne Tyler to try figure out how to be more accessible. So, what we've got here, imo, is blah blah blah *L*iterary pretentiousness about people who refuse to take responsibility for their own happiness. At least Tyler's ppl
Show More
we can care about. These just disappoint me. Show Less
Subjects
Awards
Washington State Book Award (Finalist — 2007)
The New York Times Notable Books of the Year (Fiction & Poetry — 2006)
Language
Original language
English
Physical description
288 p.; 7.5 inches
ISBN
061854335X / 9780618543359