Ghost Wedding - by David Park (Paperback)

Book Synopsis

A poignant story of love and regret, from a master of contemporary Irish fiction

An Irish Times, RTÉ Culture and Big Issue Book of the Year for 2025

* 'David Park is one of Ireland's great novelists.' Roddy Doyle, author of The Commitments *

For fans of Sebastian Faulks, Donal Ryan and Anne Tyler comes this beautiful novel following two troubled men, separated by nearly a century, bound by the ghosts of their past

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.

Review Quotes

'Beautiful, layered twin-time tale on class and regret in Belfast, a city always haunted by the past.' Big Issue

'Ghost Wedding tells the story of two men in interwoven timelines, set a hundred years apart in Belfast... Park draws out their distinctive narratives with a masterly grace. A gorgeous, thought-provoking treasure.' RTÉ Culture

'A richly resonant and deeply humane novel that is memorable in every respect.' Irish Times, 2025 Books of the Year

'A beautifully luminous and powerfully haunting piece of writing about the things that live in the shadows just beyond our reach.' Rachel Joyce, author of The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry

'A moral tale of guilt, grace and subtle reckonings... Park's prose is restrained, lyrical, and charged with what remains unsaid.' Irish Independent

'A thought-provoking novel about the power of the past. The romance is beautifully drawn in this tale of two couples whose lives overlap at a Northern Irish manor house, a century apart.' Guardian

'A writer to cherish, a master of fiction in great form. A most splendid novel: lucid, luminous, with enough secrets to break your heart and hold you spellbound, Ghost Wedding from David Park is wonderful stuff indeed.' Frank McGuinness, author of The Factory Girls

'An astute storyteller whose vision is sustained by instinct, intelligent observation, and a sense of responsibility.' Irish Times

'David Park has been writing carefully crafted fiction for decades. His latest work is about two men, separated in time by nearly a century, who are haunted by actions from their past that threaten to undo them in the present... Park tells their parallel stories with skill and insight.' The Times (Best Historical Fiction Books of 2025)

'David Park is one of Ireland's finest writers. He has written a symphony of extraordinary novels, not least Ghost Wedding.' Colum McCann, author of Apeirogon

'David Park is one of Ireland's great novelists.' Roddy Doyle, author of The Commitments

'Our finest novelist has written his finest novel. A work of heart and wit and exquisite prose. On this sort of form there is no one to touch David Park. Even by his own exceptionally high standards, Ghost Wedding is a remarkable novel, by turns exhilarating and profound, in sentences - whole passages - that sometimes take the breath away.' Glenn Patterson, author of The International

'Park appears to write effortlessly, with one foot planted firmly in the canon of traditional Irish lyricism and another flirting with modern parlance. His emotional intelligence is remarkable.' Daily Mail

'Park is a dab hand at plainspoken tales brim-full of unvoiced feeling. His new book, set on an Irish country manor, toggles between two guilt-struck men a century apart: George, a traumatised war veteran building a lake, and property developer Alex, whose imminent wedding is shadowed by a murky episode from his past. The drama owes less to explosive crisis than to moral poison from their unlanced shame.' Mail on Sunday, 'Best New Fiction'

'This stunning portrait of love and peace, war and betrayal, is the story of two men, living 100 years apart but connected by location... Intelligent, heart-wrenching storytelling.' Platinum Magazine

'Time is fluid in David Park's masterfully constructed novel where the shifting plates of the past slip their boundaries, causing seismic waves in the here and now... A compelling and absolutely mesmerising read from the maestro of the quiet crescendo.' Bernie McGill, author of The Watch House

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.