This is a sometime place, not an all the time place…
Summer 1981: Brady’s grandmother vanishes—along with an entire West Texas town. There’s no explanation, except those that don’t hold any logic. Brady doesn’t worry too much about that, having spent his childhood listening to his grandmother’s stories and playing with the pencil-sketched ghosts in her old Victorian: the young Shirley, the injured cowboy Glen, and others.
People slipping away into another world is fantasy. It’s impossible.
Summer 2025: Brady returns to his grandmother’s house, hoping to understand what happened, and to find out exactly where his grandmother went. Brady holds a hope close to his heart: That he can duplicate whatever magic his grandmother conjured, to follow in her footsteps as his own ghost-tattered life comes to its close.
I was there. I know what I saw…
Praise for Summer In The House of the Departed
“Summer in the House of the Departed is a golden-edged tale of the bond between a boy, his eccentric grandmother, and her ghost-filled old home. Rountree gives us the type of story we’ve come to expect from him: rich, poignant, and delightfully bittersweet. I loved it.”
— Chris Panatier, author of The Redemption of Morgan Bright
Summer in the House of the Departed is a luminous journey into the delicate boundary between life and death. With prose that sings and a narrative that lingers like a half-remembered dream, Josh Rountree crafts a world where the supernatural is not merely a backdrop but a living, breathing presence. A meditation on memory, loss, and a yearning for connection, Rountree invites readers to walk alongside ghosts who are as vivid and complex as the living.
—Christopher Barzak, author of the Shirley Jackson Award nominated A Voice Calling
“Reading Summer in the House of the Departed feels like standing outside in the hot August rain and then going inside with a chill in your bones. The characters here (the living and the dead) feel so vividly alive, especially the Southern ghost-hunting grandma and her bookish-and-brave grandson. A wise and compelling story of the literary Weird.”
— Ivy Grimes, author of Glass Stories
“I never pass up an opportunity to read Josh Rountree, who does western melancholic horror better than anyone I can think of. Summer in the House of the Departed is a gentle West Texas ghost story as much about the wonder of childhood as it is about all of its inalterable, traumatic disruptions. A unique novella with late-in-life characters embracing paranormal mysteries and reflecting on the otherwordly legacies we leave in our wake. For stories that are contemplative, but told with an eye toward the strange and the different, Rountree is the guy you want.”
— Thomas Ha, author of Uncertain Sons and Other Stories
“Two bleakly beautiful views of the approach to death, in a past and a present that feel incredibly well-worn and lived-in. A comfortable place to leave a little piece of your soul in between the pages.”
— Aimee Ogden, author of Starstruck
“The quiet horror of loss, caught in a beautifully written summer of ghosts.”
— Hailey Piper
“A beautiful reflection on life, death, and happenings beyond our understanding, Summer in the House of the Departed immediately settles you into Brady’s home among the ghosts and bittersweet memories. In a world of sorrow and pain, this story reminds us that there is still light that can cut through the darkness, urging us to savor the sincere friendships and love we stumble upon, whether from this world or beyond the veil.”
— Emma E. Murray, author of Crushing Snails
“When you’re a kid, life can feel like a fever dream of beautiful and terrible moments made of gossamer. Summer in the House of the Departed perfectly captures this feeling, following a boy and his grandmother on a spiritual and literal journey toward death and the afterlife. Filled with love, loss, and hope, this book will haunt you long after summer is gone.”
— Angela Sylvaine, Bram Stoker nominated author of The Dead Spot.
Full title: Summer In the House of the Departed
Author name: Josh Rountree
Price: $13.99 Print $8.99 ebook
Publisher/Imprint: Psychopomp
Format: print / ebook
Pub date: Aug 26, 2025
Page count: 110
ISBN: 979-8-89116-013-2 (print)
Genre: Fantasy
Distribution arrangements: Psychopomp.com // Ingram
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