‘A Fine and Private Place’ by Peter S. Beagle, 1960

Peter S. Beagle is perhaps best known for his classic work of fantasy, ‘The Last Unicorn.’ But it was with ‘A Fine and Private Place’ that Beagle began his literary career—at the incredibly young age of nineteen. Turning the last page of the book, I marveled that someone so young could have penned such an astonishing story. The dexterity of the prose, the presentation of themes, the layering of characters and events—this all suggests a mind developed and seasoned far beyond that of a nineteen-year-old boy.

‘A Fine and Private Place’ is, on the surface, a ghost tale, but like the best fiction, the book is much more than the story. A strange man lives alone in a graveyard. He makes his home in an old, forgotten mausoleum. We learn that he has spent the last twenty years in the graveyard, never leaving it, and the only way he eats is by the help of a talking raven, who flaps in every day with scraps of food stolen from different places of the city. The man, incidentally, can see and talk to ghosts. He helps them become adjusted to death, ironically, as he is alive. But in the end it is a ghost—or pair of ghosts—who help him understand life.

The book is an absorbing literary exploration of the complex nature of human relationships, and how relationships can make all the difference in a meaningful life.