Nick Hornby meets Jeanette Winterson in this compelling and surefooted fiction debut.Our heroine, a 35-year-old woman who works as a film projectionist at a second-run cinema in Toronto, finds herself at an existential crossroads, haunted by the ghost of a friend who died long ago. During the course of one dark night, she addresses a passionate, wickedly funny lament to the ghost, recounting her failed attempts at finding true love. Secondary characters include erstwhile poet Billie Smart, who is addicted to I Claudius reruns on late-night television; Billie's black-clad editor Claudia Shard, who has unconventional ideas about writing a "bestseller"; critically acclaimed novelist ffiona perks, the "songstress of her own mind"; and the unattainable object of everyone's affection, artist Julia Riding. At the centre of everything is the ghost: a 15-year-old dead girl named Madeline with an unbearable secret and an icy grip on our heroine's heart.