18, who singled out for the seminarians her novel
«The Book of Secret Knowledge», which opens the author’s
«Playing Another Reality» series.
«Tales of Ghosts» harmoniously complement the series. The idea of «assembling» these stories into a book is admirable: all the main characters are already ghosts. Having moved to the Other World, they, together with the author, find themselves in a long and slow queue to the Heaven Chancellery, located in the City of the Sun, where everyone will be informed about his further destiny. To pass the time and warm the soul, the ghosts light up the fire, throwing into it their earthly lifetime stories. By the will of Lord, the author, in fact a listener of the stories, eventually returns from the City of the Sun to Earth in order to write down «Tales of Ghosts» by heart and pass them on to people.
It is no coincidence that the book consists of several parts. Arranged according to the principle from Earth to Heaven, it slowly leads the reader further and further into the Subtle World, to the place where the planet Earth is seen as a barely distinguishable point in the Abyss of the Cosmic Mind.
Part I. «Love me now!» is a collection of philosophical love stories, united by the regret and remorse of the main characters that they could not live for real the opportunity of given to them Love. The reasons are different, but the result cannot be changed: unexpressed love gnaws the souls, pulls them into the past, where they can never return. Is it possible to make dreams come true in a posthumous reality? The story «A Cats’ Name» from this collection deserves the highest praise: it is not just touching – the reader won’t doubt a bit that it is being told by… a dog devoted to its owner!
Part II. «The Master of Fates» are shocking stories about those who imagine themselves to be God: perverted maniacs and quite on their minds – cold-blooded and prudent killers commit crimes without a twinge of conscience. The author’s incredible ability to penetrate the mind of maniacs culminates in the chilling, purely Hitchcock-like story «Cranberries» and strikes the reader on the spot, causing him to fear not only the swamps, but also the cranberries!
Part III. «Restless Souls» contains mystical stories in the spirit of Edgar Allan Poe about ghost apparitions, each one strikingly unpredictable in its plot. The geography of phenomena is vast: London, Paris, Rome, Prague, Moscow, New York… Wherever the ghosts appear – in modern offices or in condemned houses, whether they are walking in the park near the Louvre or unwinding in a seaside resort in Italy – they are looking for an opportunity to complete some unfinished situation during their earthly lives, which haunts them after death, or they come to the aid of still alive relatives and beloved ones. The stories are so touching that they will not leave the reader without empathy: he involuntarily seeks a way of salvation for the main characters, finding it together with them and for himself. And here is another masterpiece – a heart-warming story