by Margot Livesey
Magpies, a bleak Scottish castle, ghosts. Sounds like the backdrop for Macbeth, but this enchanting novel unfolds in 1925, when two blithe spirits—an older woman "who shone as if she had been dipped in silver" and a pig-tailed young girl—come to watch over 6-year-old Eva, whose mother died in childbirth. Visible only to Eva, the spirits annoyingly shuffle desks and chairs but straighten out Eva's world, serving as surrogate parents by guiding her through life's hard choices. What could dissolve into horror-movie cliché is instead an understated study of a woman's experience. As the older ghost explains about why the specter of Eva's own mother never appears, "In a way, she never left." (Holt, $23)
Bottom Line: Moving company
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