Summary

In the Prologue, of Ghosts, Nina Dean turned thirty-two years old. She played ‘The Edge of Heaven’ by Wham!, while brushing her teeth, the song that had been number one the day she was born and inspired her middle name, George. That evening, the narrator went for birthday drinks with her friends and contemplated the manners in which their relationships had shifted as they got older. When she returned home, Nina downloaded a dating app, Linx, and created an online dating profile for the first time.

In Chapter 1, Nina visited her parents in suburban North London. The narrator found her father, Bill, reading in the living room. Two years earlier, he had suffered from a stroke, and it took several months for them to “realize that he wasn’t entirely better” (19). Nina knew to simplify her language when they spoke...