Publishers Weekly
★ 12/08/2014
Journalist Nordhaus (The Beekeeper’s Lament) embarks on a “ghost hunt” for her great-great-grandmother, German immigrant Julia Schuster Staab, in this unique collision of family history, Wild West adventure, and ghost story. Since the 1970s, the grand La Posada hotel in Santa Fe has been subject to sightings of a ghost resembling Julia, who lived there with her husband, Abraham, and their seven children in the late 19th century. Nordhaus, who comes from a long line of skeptics, decides to investigate these rumors. She consults a variety of self-appointed supernatural experts—psychics, tarot-card readers, mediums, and dowsers—as well as more traditional sources such as newspaper archives, family diaries, and aging relatives. She also visits the settings of her grandmother’s life, from villages in Germany to the deserts of New Mexico where the Staabs lived alongside “Spanish settlers and Pueblo Indians... Navajos, Apaches, freed slaves, soldiers... cowboys, dry-land farmers... land-grabbers, miners, and shysters.” In the process, Nordhaus uncovers a strain of mental illness that runs through one branch of her family, delves into the lore of the 19th-century spiritualist movement, and discovers how a true-life story can become a paranormal one. Perceptive, witty, and engaging, Nordhaus observes that “it’s not so much the ghost that keeps the dead alive... as it is the story.” (Mar.)
From the Publisher
In this intriguing book, [Nordhaus] shares her journey to discover who her immigrant ancestor really was - and what strange alchemy made the idea of her linger long after she was gone.” — People
“Whether you believe in ghosts or are just intrigued by their persistence in popular culture, American Ghost is itself a haunting story about the long reach of the past.” — Maureen Corrigan, NPR's Fresh Air
“Expertly dissects fact from embroidery. . . . A colorful and engrossing quest.” — Elle, "7 Must-Read Books"
“Nordhaus attacks her subject with the same scholarship and lively writing that made her nonfiction debut, The Beekeeper’s Lament, a beloved best-seller. . . . Fascinating.” — Dallas Morning News
“The more Nordhaus digs into the history and explores the supernatural dimensions of the story, the more complex and intriguing it becomes. American Ghost is a multi-genre work that succeeds on a number of levels.” — Denver Post
“Journalist Hannah Nordhaus braids personal memoir with historical research and resolute ghost hunting in a narrative that investigates the restless spirit of her great-great-grandmother Julia Schuster Staab.” — Boston Globe
“A gripping account of frontier life from an immigrant Jewish woman’s perspective. It is the author’s connection of the past where she explores the story, trying to separate the history and the myth.” — Working Mother
“Part travelogue, part memoir, part ghost story, part history. . . . Nordhaus offers a deeply compelling personal account of her attempts to better understand her own family. . . . The book’s unique blend of genres and its excellent writing make it hard to put down.” — Booklist (starred review)
“[A] funny, moving, and suspenseful tale.” — The Week
“The author’s multifaceted work brings Julia back to life and explores the journey it took to rediscover her narrative. . . . Every aspect of the account is enlightening, well written, and entertaining. This touching and uplifting work is highly recommended and will appeal to a variety of readers.” — Library Journal (starred review)
“An incredible story. . . . A haunting tale.” — National Examiner
“A fascinating and nuanced account of her ancestral ghost story and her complicated clan.” — BookPage
“A unique collision of family history, Wild West adventure, and ghost story. . . . Perceptive, witty, and engaging.” — Publishers Weekly (starred review)
“Fascinating and frequently surprising. Ultimately, American Ghost is a reflection on how the unresolved questions in our own histories can be even more haunting than ghosts.” — Shelf Awareness
“Tenaciously researched and beautifully written, American Ghost gives flesh to a lost story, exhumes a bygone world, and animates the ways in which the past haunts all of us. Hannah Nordhaus has performed a lyrical feat of dead-raising.” — Benjamin Wallace, author of The Billionaire's Vinegar
“Beautifully written and self-aware, a memoir that tells a story and searches for broader lessons. . . . Ultimately, American Ghost is not just the story of a haunting, but a story that will haunt its readers.” — Minneapolis Star Tribune
“A thoughtful and intriguing chronicle of familial investigation.” — Kirkus Reviews
“American Ghost is at once an engrossing portrait of a forgotten female pioneer and a fascinating meditation on the fine line between history and lore. Hannah Nordhaus has crafted a seamless blend of gripping mystery, moving family confessional, and chilling ghost story.” — Karen Abbott, New York Times bestselling author of Liar, Temptress, Soldier, Spy
“Here is a very different sort of a Western, a deeply feminine story with a strong whiff of the paranormal—Willa Cather meets Stephen King. Don’t read this book late at night . . . unless you like feeling your neck hairs stand up on end!” — Hampton Sides, author of In the Kingdom of Ice and Blood and Thunder
“Hannah Nordhaus approaches the legend of her great-great-grandmother’s ghost with the insight of an historian and the energy of an inspired detective. A fine tale well told. I loved every word.” — Anne Hillerman, author of Spider Woman's Daughter
“A spirited memoir of one of the earliest Jewish pioneer families in the West. . . . A delightful travelogue.” — JWeekly.com
“Hannah Nordhaus braids personal memoir with historical research and resolute ghost hunting in a narrative that investigates the restless spirit of her great-great-grandmother Julia Schuster Staab.” — Boston Globe
“Hannah Nordhaus writes a detective story, although it’s not fiction, and a ghost story, although it’s not a chiller. It’s biography and history and the product of investigative research, yet everything of power, even scholarly process, must come from the heart, and so does this story.” — Washington Independent Review of Books
“A spirited memoir of one of the earliest Jewish pioneer families in the American West…A delightful travelogue…reads like a novel.” — Jewish Book Council
“All of us are haunted — by vestiges of the past, and, as Hannah Nordhaus poignantly observes in American Ghost, by the ghosts of who we thought we were or thought we would become.” — Boulder Weekly
Nordhaus’s lyrical memoir … untangles truth and legend, the tale of success and the hardships of life, the woman and the ghost.” — Jewish Woman Magazine
“[A] chronicle of German-Jewish immigration to the American Southwest, a reckoning of family secrets, and an account of the author’s personal ghost hunt.” — Santa Fe New Mexican
“Nordhaus takes us on a journey back in time — by any means possible — in order to draw a better picture of who her great-great-grandmother was.” — Washington Post
Working Mother
A gripping account of frontier life from an immigrant Jewish woman’s perspective. It is the author’s connection of the past where she explores the story, trying to separate the history and the myth.
"7 Must-Read Books" Elle
Expertly dissects fact from embroidery. . . . A colorful and engrossing quest.
Denver Post
The more Nordhaus digs into the history and explores the supernatural dimensions of the story, the more complex and intriguing it becomes. American Ghost is a multi-genre work that succeeds on a number of levels.
Booklist (starred review)
Part travelogue, part memoir, part ghost story, part history. . . . Nordhaus offers a deeply compelling personal account of her attempts to better understand her own family. . . . The book’s unique blend of genres and its excellent writing make it hard to put down.
Dallas Morning News
Nordhaus attacks her subject with the same scholarship and lively writing that made her nonfiction debut, The Beekeeper’s Lament, a beloved best-seller. . . . Fascinating.
People
In this intriguing book, [Nordhaus] shares her journey to discover who her immigrant ancestor really was - and what strange alchemy made the idea of her linger long after she was gone.
The Week
[A] funny, moving, and suspenseful tale.
Maureen Corrigan
Whether you believe in ghosts or are just intrigued by their persistence in popular culture, American Ghost is itself a haunting story about the long reach of the past.
Boston Globe
Journalist Hannah Nordhaus braids personal memoir with historical research and resolute ghost hunting in a narrative that investigates the restless spirit of her great-great-grandmother Julia Schuster Staab.
Boulder Weekly
All of us are haunted — by vestiges of the past, and, as Hannah Nordhaus poignantly observes in American Ghost, by the ghosts of who we thought we were or thought we would become.
Jewish Book Council
A spirited memoir of one of the earliest Jewish pioneer families in the American West…A delightful travelogue…reads like a novel.
Jewish Woman Magazine
Nordhaus’s lyrical memoir … untangles truth and legend, the tale of success and the hardships of life, the woman and the ghost.
Santa Fe New Mexican
[A] chronicle of German-Jewish immigration to the American Southwest, a reckoning of family secrets, and an account of the author’s personal ghost hunt.
Anne Hillerman
Hannah Nordhaus approaches the legend of her great-great-grandmother’s ghost with the insight of an historian and the energy of an inspired detective. A fine tale well told. I loved every word.
Washington Independent Review of Books
Hannah Nordhaus writes a detective story, although it’s not fiction, and a ghost story, although it’s not a chiller. It’s biography and history and the product of investigative research, yet everything of power, even scholarly process, must come from the heart, and so does this story.
National Examiner
An incredible story. . . . A haunting tale.
Washington Post
Nordhaus takes us on a journey back in time — by any means possible — in order to draw a better picture of who her great-great-grandmother was.
Karen Abbott
American Ghost is at once an engrossing portrait of a forgotten female pioneer and a fascinating meditation on the fine line between history and lore. Hannah Nordhaus has crafted a seamless blend of gripping mystery, moving family confessional, and chilling ghost story.
Minneapolis Star Tribune
Beautifully written and self-aware, a memoir that tells a story and searches for broader lessons. . . . Ultimately, American Ghost is not just the story of a haunting, but a story that will haunt its readers.
JWeekly.com
A spirited memoir of one of the earliest Jewish pioneer families in the West. . . . A delightful travelogue.
Hampton Sides
Here is a very different sort of a Western, a deeply feminine story with a strong whiff of the paranormal—Willa Cather meets Stephen King. Don’t read this book late at night . . . unless you like feeling your neck hairs stand up on end!
Shelf Awareness
Fascinating and frequently surprising. Ultimately, American Ghost is a reflection on how the unresolved questions in our own histories can be even more haunting than ghosts.
BookPage
A fascinating and nuanced account of her ancestral ghost story and her complicated clan.
Benjamin Wallace
Tenaciously researched and beautifully written, American Ghost gives flesh to a lost story, exhumes a bygone world, and animates the ways in which the past haunts all of us. Hannah Nordhaus has performed a lyrical feat of dead-raising.
Working Mother
A gripping account of frontier life from an immigrant Jewish woman’s perspective. It is the author’s connection of the past where she explores the story, trying to separate the history and the myth.
Washington Post
Nordhaus takes us on a journey back in time — by any means possible — in order to draw a better picture of who her great-great-grandmother was.
From the Publisher - AUDIO COMMENTARY
"Perceptive, witty, and engaging, Nordhaus observes that 'it's not so much the ghost that keeps the dead alive. . . as it is the story'" —Publishers Weekly Starred Review
Mary Doria Russell
I don’t believe in ghosts, but I believe in the beautiful literary afterlife Hannah Nordhaus has given her great-great-grandmother. American Ghost is a perfect blend of compassionate empathy, hardheaded journalism, and lucid writing.
Elle
Expertly dissects fact from embroidery. . . . A colorful and engrossing quest.
Library Journal - Audio
06/01/2015
Nordhaus (The Beekeeper's Lament) was captivated by stories of her great-great-grandmother Julia's ghost haunting the former family home, now the La Posada hotel in Santa Fe, NM. So she sets off on a research project to investigate Julia, the Staab family, and the conditions surrounding her death. Born in Germany, Julia Schuster married Abraham Staab, a Jewish businessman, and moved to Santa Fe in 1865, where they lived with their seven children. She tried adjusting to life in the Wild West but had a difficult time with homesickness, requiring frequent trips back to Germany to visit family. She died at age 52, depressed and in ill health, after the death of their eighth child. Nordhaus searches through newspapers, family memoirs, and city archives, even meeting with experts in the supernatural, to uncover Julia's sad life and offer fascinating details about the American frontier, the plight of Jews in 19th-century Europe, and the occult. Narrator Xe Sands's matter-of-fact narration captures each character's individuality. VERDICT Although faltering a little near the end when Nordhaus lapses into an excess of "make every day count" platitudes, this ghost story/memoir should enlighten and entertain history and memoir buffs. ["This touching and uplifting work is highly recommended and would appeal to a variety of public and academic readers": LJ 1/15 starred review of the Harper hc.]—Nancy R. Ives, SUNY at Geneseo
Library Journal
★ 01/01/2015
Nordhaus follows her successful The Beekeeper's Lament with the astonishing story of her great-great-grandmother Julia Schuster Staab, who traveled from Germany in 1866 to New Mexico and eventually into the stuff of legend as the troubled ghost that haunts the La Posada Hotel of Santa Fe. Julia is New Mexico's most famous apparition and, were it not for those stories, Nordhaus would probably never have written this book. The author's multifaceted work brings Julia back to life and explores the journey it took to rediscover her narrative. The book's many elements could appeal to a variety of readers, as there are mentions of discovering genealogical origins, insight into Jewish immigration to the United States, the life of a pioneer woman in the Wild West, and finally how someone's ghost becomes a legend. Every aspect of the account is enlightening, well written, and entertaining, from the sojourn to Germany to trace her roots to talking to psychics about the ghostly Julia, and finally Julia herself, who ended up changing and inspiring the author. VERDICT This touching and uplifting work is highly recommended and will appeal to a variety of readers.—Mary E. Jones, Los Angeles P.L., CA
APRIL 2015 - AudioFile
This riveting family history explores the eloquent story of the author’s great great grandmother, Julia Schuster Stabb (1844-1896)—as well as the topics of frontier life in Santa Fe and German Jews in the U.S. in the nineteenth century. Narrator Xe Sands exquisitely captures the author’s earnest interest in Julia and her family. Sands's clear voice and refreshing cadences add an authenticity that listeners will find engaging. Julia's Santa Fe home, now La Posada de Santa Fe Resort, is said to be haunted, and Nordhaus explores this phenomenon in terms of “unfinished business.” Overall, Sands’s presentation is smooth and straightforward. Her narration and the fascinating story itself will entertain listeners of all ages. S.C.A. Winner of AudioFile Earphones Award © AudioFile 2015, Portland, Maine
Kirkus Reviews
2014-12-06
A journalist's account of how she went in search of the true story behind her great-great-grandmother's life and ghostly reappearances almost a century after her mysterious death. Julia Staab was a member of the Nordhaus family tree and also "Santa Fe's most famous ghost." Born to a well-to-do Jewish family in Germany in the mid-1840s, Julia eventually married a fellow German Jew who went on to become one of Santa Fe's most prominent and scandal-ridden businessmen. As a child, Nordhaus (The Beekeeper's Lament: How One Man and Half a Billion Honey Bees Help Feed America, 2011) knew of Julia as one ancestor among others. It was only when she learned that her great-great-grandmother had begun haunting the La Posada Hotel—which had once been the Staab family mansion—that "Julia stopped being quite so dead." Many years later, Nordhaus came across a family history that told a fascinating story of "forbidden love, inheritance and disinheritance, anger and madness." Suddenly, understanding Julia's life took on new importance, especially since the specter of personal loss had begun to cast a shadow over Nordhaus. A trained historian, the author tracked down information about Julia, the Staab family and the worlds they inhabited in archives and libraries and through testing her own DNA. The objective evidence she gathered pointed to an unhappy marriage to a solicitous but dictatorial man, a possible liaison with a powerful archbishop and an attempted suicide. Determined to also understand Julia at an emotional and spiritual level, Nordhaus also turned to psychics, mediums and ghost hunters for information. She ultimately discovered that the truth about Julia and her life did not reside in the facts but rather in the spaces between facts: In the end, she writes, those spaces contain the details "that tell us who we are." A thoughtful and intriguing chronicle of familial investigation.
