"A lovingly crafted tale of damnation and redemption. Poetic and beautiful...a book that you cannot put down!" - Editor's Pick Publication Review. Sometimes our simplest wishes can be the most difficult to attain.The Ghost Years is jarring and brutally honest, from its immersive beginning right through to its startling, unpredictable conclusion. It's a young man's attempt to pick up the pieces and start over after a devastating, life- changing event, only to be presented with greater obstacles than he could ever have envisioned. He is taken to unimaginable places, both physically and mentally. How much control does he really have over his fate? The Ghost Years goes deep beneath the surface through unflinching plot twists and hauntingly poetic prose.
Author Mutch Katsonga weaves an outstanding and noteworthy tale of drug addiction and homelessness, with intriguing twists and turns that will easily captivate the reader’s attention from the beginning. The author paints a compelling story of despair and hope in a very vivid and convincing way. In addition, the characters are drawn with great credibility and conviction. It’s a relatively fast-paced novel that will keep you engaged from the first page to the last. The emotion is accomplished in the delivery of exciting and titillating prose. From wildish illusions through detailed, graphic scenes, the concept is wonderfully delivered in truly amazing writing.
I’ve no doubt you’ll walk away a better person for having read this extraordinary story. It’s given me a different perspective and understanding on the plight of drug addicts and the homeless. In so much that, there’s something to be gained when we trade a longing for truth and authenticity for the hope that new modes of storytelling can be found and disseminated, stories that might make people whom we wouldn’t willingly invite into our living rooms seem familiar enough so that we might want to change our minds.
The book description gives a sneak preview; ‘Sometimes our simplest wishes can be the most difficult to attain. The Ghost Years is brutally honest and jarring, from its immersive beginning right through to it's startling, unpredictable conclusion. It's a young man's attempt to pick up the pieces and start over only to be presented with greater obstacles than he could ever have envisioned. He is taken to unimaginable and devastating places, both physically and mentally. How much control does he really have over his fate? The Ghost Years goes deep beneath the surface through unflinching plot twists and hauntingly poetic prose.’
Now, if that’s not enough to get your whet your appetite, I don’t know what will. But if you want to find out what happens, you’ll just have to turn the pages for yourself! However, I will say it was well worth the read. It’s my first time reading this author and I must say I was very impressed.
Captivating and commendable, this work had me immersed from the beginning. The story flowed from scene to scene with ease, and the author shows exceptional ability when it comes to storytelling. There are plenty of attention-grabbing moments in this page turner that will take the reader on a truly compelling and intriguing journey!
It’s one of those books that come along occasionally that makes you want to read it non-stop until you get to the end. I’m giving nothing further away here. And this, I hope, will only add to the mystery and enjoyment for the reader.
The Ghost Years is a brilliant read that somehow leaves you feeling more enlightened for having read it. It’s an impressive work and I’ll certainly be looking forward to reading more from this author in the future. Very few books had this kind of impact on me. Read it and you’ll know what I mean. Furthermore, I could easily see this being adapted as a television series or even receiving a sympathetic Hollywood treatment. A well-deserved five stars from me.
"Do you know what it is to never leave your bed but never know rest?" In The Ghost Years, Mutch Katsonga tackles mental illness, grief, coping, drug addiction, love and lost love, and family all wrapped in a very psychological novel told from first person point of view. I'm going to break things up for clarity's sake. :)
-Loss and the following grief... ...can wreck your entire life and not everyone recovers. We follow one man's story from a life-ending event and on as he, and others in his life adjust to it and try to deal with it. Though the story focuses on him, we see through his eyes how his family is affected by by grief and witness the process of dying before you stop breathing.
"I still wonder what his final thought was. I wonder what mine will be." -Depression & Coping Just that annoying little mental illness that sucks all of the joy out of his family, ruins their lives, and comes with a heavy side of anxiety. Though, in this story we do not see our main character develop strong skills to learn how to cope in a healthy way, we do experience how his depression and hopelessness bind together to help him get through the days.
"I won't say I didn't walk a mile across a bedroom floor..."
Felt that quote way down deep in my little dark soul.
This was a startling and gripping look into a person’s personal demons from depression to drug addiction and homelessness. Drawing on his own personal experiences, the author gives us an unprecedented look at the ups and downs of lie in the hardest and bleakest of times. I think I would say this book falls almost into the autobiography category as it follows the author from his earliest childhood and happy times with his family into his years of homelessness and finally we see what happened that allowed him to claw his way out of the dark. I was surprised to see just how much emotion the author poured into this book. He wrote this book for us to see unapologetically just how desolate he was at times. The good, the bad and the ugly and then the really ugly, it was all chronicled for us to see. Eye-opening and certainly jarring, it certainly shined a spotlight into a misunderstood portion of American life.
‘Society screws up its face when it looks upon me but comprehends nothing of its own dichotomous self!’
Australian author Mutch Katsonga earned his degrees in Creative Writing and Journalism from Griffith University, Australia. He has published three books to date – BEYOND THE SPIRAL GATES, WHERE WILDFIRES GLOW, and THE GHOST YEARS. In addition to his creativity in writing he also writes songs, is a musician, and a qualified Mental Health Professional and has worked in various youth and rehab services. He continues to record, perform and release his original music, which is available online under his stage name Indie Soull.
Mutch’s choice of cover art for his book speaks volumes – and image that repeats in black and white at the end of each chapter. This is a very finely wrought story of the decline and fall and search for meaning for a young man that speaks directly to so many fellow travelers who hopefully will read this version of one man’s life. The manner in which Mutch introduces his main character breathes a thread of constancy that is felt throughout the book. ‘I stirred the steaming black liquid in slow perfect circles. The black liquid continued its seemingly endless swirl, creating a whirlpool. I watched it, fixated, as it slowly settled, stagnant and still, resembling glistening crude oil. I like my coffee strong. At times it is no more than a thick bitter sludge I pour down my throat. I lifted the cup to my lips and took a noisy sip. The steam was still rolling off the top so I approached it cautiously. It was a typical day at my first job since leaving a drug and alcohol rehab facility six months prior. I had been clean since and I dragged my feet to support meetings once a week but I won’t lie and say I didn’t still get cravings. My job was nothing fancy. I worked at Twilights Assisted Living Facility located at the apex of Bluff Hill on the south side of town. I worked as a porter and kitchen-hand, serving meals to the residents. I would also wheel residents to their therapeutic sessions and walks around the grounds. My dad had got me the job. He felt working in a retirement home would give my life a renewed sense of purpose, and I had agreed with him. Working with the elderly was never part of my long term goals, I assure you, and after only two months I was starting to feel a morbid kinship with the residents. In my pensive “spaced-out” state I had lost track of time and by the time I snapped back, my coffee had gone cold. I hate cold coffee. There was a sudden knock on the door, “Your break is over, its time for the afternoon tea run!” The voice is that of the shift manager, Cole. He is a few years older than me and brim-full of youthful zeal but does not care much for the elderly residents.’
A tale of this sensitivity is not easy to condense, though the synopsis supplied attempts: ‘Sometimes our simplest wishes can be the most difficult to attain. A young man's attempt to pick up the pieces and start over only to be presented with greater obstacles than he could ever have envisioned. Through visceral first-person accounts and stark, vivid imagery, the story chronicles the obstacles of depression, drug addiction, and the trials of homelessness that he endures on his path to self-discovery. He is taken to unimaginable and devastating places, both physically and psychologically. How much control does he really have over his fate?’
Toward the end Mutch offers the following – ‘I have a new found respect and appreciation for life; my life, all life. I suddenly recall the complete words I had read on that religious poster; “Every breath we breathe is a testament to the beauty of creation and every heartbeat is a footstep high on heaven’s hill.” There are no ghosts in the realm of the living.’ This is the work of a sensitive poet who molds language as though on a potter’s wheel that results in unspeakably beautiful art. Highly Recommended.
Not only is this gifted singer and songwriter a musical genius, but an author as well. Based on his work thus far, it is evident that Katsonga puts his heart and soul into everything he does. His new book titled The Ghost Years is a chilling, but surreal tale that has a little something for everyone. The Ghost Years is a clever story about a young man and the obstacles of depression, drug addiction, and trials of homelessness that he must endure before self-discovery. The book is an easy to follow read and will constantly have you on the edge of your seat anticipating what is going to come next. One thing that immediately impressed me about The Ghost Years was the author’s style of writing. Katsonga’s wordplay is like a visual paintbrush. The reader can readily draw a picture in his mind from reading the book that is never forced.
While the book does have quite a few dark moments, I find these to be consistent with its theme and very realistic portrayal of what some people have to do to become something greater then themselves in a simple way. A lot of the main character’s trouble and despair stems from absorbing the negativity that people around him possessed and their outlook on life.
Another gem that I found in reading The Ghost Years was watching Katsonga develop his own writing style. He is brave enough to perfect his own literary rules, most of which doesn’t conflict with mainstream’s religion of grammar. The Ghost Years is the best novel I’ve read this year!
This book is emotional and gripping, but I have to say it’s not my favorite by this writer. (My favorite is Beyond the Spiral Gates.) The Ghost Years follows a young man, cast out by society into the netherworld of homelessness, as he struggles with addiction and the horrific side effects of drug abuse—and I’m not just talking about the toll it takes on your body.
The story takes readers from the protagonist’s younger years—before he was even born—and into his twenties, showing them the ups he had with his loving family and the downs he suffered as he gradually lost his connection with his loved ones and took a dark path which once would not have been imaginable for such a bright boy. Readers witness as people look down on him, take advantage of him, spit on him, all while he chases after the “dragon” that is the perfect high—and wrestles with the Hydra that was his inner demons.
Katsonga has such a poetic voice in this novel that it would be hard not to be captivated by it. The emotional but intelligent writing perfectly matches the first-person narrator, perhaps to a fault. While the philosophical and self-reflective sections make sense for this character, I struggled at times to get through them in order to continue with the meat of the story. I love philosophy and deep thinking as much as any other reader, but I was also so wrapped up in this young man’s journey that those asides grew tedious.
Oddly enough, the metaphors of the dragon and the Hydra were actually my favorite part. While they take the reader as much away from the main story as the philosophical and self-reflective asides do, I was bewitched by how Katsonga wove these metaphors throughout the novel, starting with the protagonist’s early fascination with St. George and then wrapping it up nicely with remarks on how anyone can overcome these dragons and hydras. Perhaps that’s why I liked them whereas the philosophy and self-reflection sometimes lost me.
I noticed some proofreading errors, some of which could be brushed off as a way to create Katsonga’s poetic voice. Regardless, not all of them could and these mistakes were, at times, distracting. Overall, though, they rarely detracted from the reading experience.
All in all, The Ghost Years is great for those looking to think more deeply about the world. If you have a passion for the issues of drug addiction and homelessness or you want to gain a better understanding of them, you’ll want to join this protagonist on his journey from a troubled college drop-out to the confident, caring volunteer at the nursing home which we meet in the first chapter. The philosophy might bog you down some, but the rest of the story is worth it.
Mutch Katsonga is an ACE storysmith. My first interaction (and only one so far...though that will not be the case for long) with his dexterous character-handling and engaging story-building was through The Ghost Years earlier last month.
Page after page he dusts away the cobwebs from the damp, fogged existence of a recovering(-ish) drug addict, a tale haunted between what he did leave behind and what he should have left behind. An emotional rollercoaster that takes you down the darkest alleys of social exile in which dreams and hopes of returning to a normal life are left to suffocate, gasping for air to live again.
His writing has deep emotional content firmly rooted in the reality, yet astounding in the telling. The poetic quality about his prose speaks highly of the level of his own faith invested in the story, which he masterfully embellishes while creating layer upon layer of drudgery through graveyard of hopes and dreams.
Will it leave you with hope...or despair? I cannot say. You will find your own connection, understanding and consequences with the story. But, that it will leave you with a perspective that will loom large in your imagination for days and months to come, is one thing I am absolutely certain of.
This story stares into the heart of society to point out its ills. It focuses on the effect of drug abuse and how its effect can be long-lasting on its victims. Here, we are faced with a young man struggling with the side effect of addiction and all the severe side effects that are associated with it.
The pages of this book are thought-provoking as it breaks down in details the life of this young man from his early years up till his struggles and complete detachment from family. He slowly drifted into the dark paths not fit for an intelligent boy as he is. He suffered in the hands of people who only despised and took advantage of him.
Katsonga is a very good writer with a strong sense of expression and the desire to expose societal ills from the perspective we rarely see on the popular media. He certainly has a good way of getting his readers engaged in this book by relying on the first-person narrative style to tell his story. If you get excited reading philosophical materials, you will definitely love reading this book.
A story that takes a journey into a world most people get to avoid
The Ghost Years is a good story written with the right touch that keeps you turning the pages to see where it will go next. The characters are developed and the scenes descriptive and pull you right in. This journey begins simple enough with a first person view of the world. As the story proceeds the tale follows a path of drugs to homelessness, to addiction recovery. The challenge to this story is having the ability to get through the story without finding yourself questioning your own morals and ability to ignore those who are in bad places and struggling. A good read for anyone who likes to see the raw emotion of this side of the life style. Check this one out folks.
The Ghost Years by Mutch Katsonga is a beautifully written book that delves into the world of drug addiction, homelessness, and recovery. With an emotional and gripping start, written in the first person, the author takes the reader on a journey of self discovery and redemption. The protagonist has had a difficult time, and describes his experiences from early childhood until the present when he is working in an old folks home. The author's rendering of the characters' experiences are thoughtfully delivered, with even the most benign scene taking on extraordinary meaning. There is plenty of depth in our lead character who examines his daily routine working in the nursing home with a rueful nod. He is at once compassionate and able to relate to those struggling in old age. An emotional journey for one man looking to find his way in life, this is a wholly immersive read that emboldens the reader to dive deep into one man's search for meaning in his life. Strong recommendation.