Ghost Wedding by David Park

 

Ghost Wedding by David Park.

Published 8th May 2025 by Oneworld.

From the cover of the book:

When George Allenby is put in charge of building a lake in the grounds of an imposing Irish manor house, he intends to do the job as swiftly as possible and return to Belfast. Allenby is still wrestling with his time as an officer during the First World War, burdened by the many things he could have done differently.

Almost a century later, Alex and Ellie are preparing for their wedding, sparing no expense to hire a venue overlooking the very lake Allenby built all those years ago.

Like Allenby before him, Alex is haunted by decisions he made in the past. Now, with the wedding drawing ever closer, he is at a crossroads. Telling the truth might free him from his guilt; it might also take away everything he cares about, including Ellie.

In this masterful portrait of love and betrayal, David Park reveals the many ways the past seeps into the present: destructive, formidable, but also hopeful, in the moments of fragile beauty that remain.

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1920s. George Allenby has the unenviable task of constructing a lake and boat house in the grounds of the newly wealthy Remington family's estate. Poor weather, and too much mud makes the job hard going for a man plagued with the ghosts of his time in the trenches of the Great War. He longs to be done and be able to return to his isolated existence in Belfast, but then he meets housemaid Cora and finds comfort in her arms, but he fears to confess the secrets he is keeping.

A hundred years later, Alex and Ellie have booked the Boat House of the Manor House, now a hotel, for their wedding. Alex is finding his role working for his property developer father increasing difficult, despite the life if allows he and Ellie to live. He is also feels burdened by an act he sorely regrets, which plagues him with guilt he feels coming between him and his bride. Should he confess what he has done, even if it means he might lose the woman he loves?

The story unfurls in two interconnected timelines, Allenby in the past, and Alex and Ellie in the present, and is wreathed in themes that echo through time. Park reflects the haunting burden of guilt, regret and the impact of the choices the two central characters Allenby and Alex have made, cleverly flipping the story on its axis to look at aspects of their lives like two sides of a coin.

As an aficionado of between-the-wars tales, Allenby's side of the story was my favourite - even if it the most heart-breaking. He is a man unable to reconcile his experiences from the trenches, preferring to keep himself apart from emotional entanglements. The glimmer of romance between him and Cora is quite lovely, for as long as it lasts... On the other hand, Alex is much more difficult to take to your heart, because of his past, but there is intriguing light and shade in his character that makes his dilemma all the more through provoking.

The most beautiful thing about this book is the way Park uses the recurring presence of spirits tied to buildings and places, lingering on to look upon the actions of the living who cannot see them, but feel their presence. This works so well with the way Allenby and Alex are haunted by their own ghosts, born of the choices they have made. 

An unforgettable novel, which broke my heart. I will be thinking about this one for a long time to come.

Ghost Wedding is available to buy now in hardcover, and ebook formats. Audio book coming soon.

Thank you to Oneworld for sending me a copy of this book in return for an honest review.

About the author:

David Park is the author of ten novels, a novella and two collections of short stories. The Healing won the Authors’ Club First Novel Award, and his novel Travelling in a Strange Land won the Kerry Group Irish Novel of the Year. The Light of Amsterdam was shortlisted for the International Dublin Literary Award.

His work has been shortlisted for the Irish Novel of the Year four times. He has received a Major Artist Award from the Arts Council of Northern Ireland and an Honorary Fellowship in the Seamus Heaney Centre at Queen’s University, Belfast.