The Dead Fathers Club: Matt Haig

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With Phillip, it's explored in much more detail - grief, resentment, inability to act, the sense of isolation - it's all there, in gloriously modern terms. What's also utterly magnificent is the possibility that the father's ghost doesn't exist at all - and that Phillip is suffering some sort of mental breakdown after losing a loved one. This puts a totally fresh spin on things, which I thought was really clever. It made me start wondering - what if that was the case in the original Hamlet? What if Claudius was actually totally innocent? Thought provoking stuff! A. I think it is. He clearly can’t come to terms with the sudden absence of his father so he ends up over-compensating through the creation of a world that only he can see. Grief’s a bit like that, isn’t it? It’s like the ‘phantom limb’ amputees feel. Your mind takes a while to get used to a devastating new reality. This is meant to be a modern take on Hamlet from my understanding, and maybe my issue is that I just don't enjoy retellings. I couldn't really get the plot with this one; are ghosts actually real in this world or was Phillip just lost in the throes of grief. He's meant to be 11 but his POV just reads as a lot younger. Did Alan kill his father? Who the hell knows, it's never made clear and by the end of the book Alan is in deep water himself (pun intended). Tempering the tragedy with a deftly comic touch, Haig combines a compelling mixture of psychological insight and pre-adolescent angst in this strikingly original tale. The Big Issue This is an amazing and imaginative update of Hamlet . . . Haig does a fabulous job of exploring the psyche of an eleven-year-old boy. He takes serious situations and makes them come across with humor and a full range of other emotions. The Dead Fathers Club is a refreshing and modern tale of grief and revenge – and also a definite must-read. Curled Up.com

Matt’s writing style is unusually down-to-earth and he prides himself on penning novels that appeal to different generations. Grant Woodward, Yorkshire Evening Post The hilarious tale is full of poignant insights into the strange workings of the world seen through the eyes of a child. Hull Daily Mail Phillip's Dad, a former pub landlord, has recently died in a car-crash. Except (like Hamlet's father), he's refusing to die quietly. Instead, he starts haunting Phillip, telling him that he's part of the 'dead father's club' - men who have been murdered and who are seeking vengeance.Where Matt Haig’s debut novel, The Last Family in England, was a superb reworking of Henry IV, Part I, Dead Fathers Club gives a gracious nod towards Hamlet. . . Matt Haig – one of the freshest talents in the UK at the moment – triumphs again. Steph Little, Brighton Argus

What is the most useful way to understand the spirit that we come to know as Philip’s father’s ghost? Should he be thought of as a character, as an embodiment of Philip’s anxieties, as a demonic presence, or as something else? Why does Philip trust him for so long? A. I’ve got a children’s book, Shadow Forest, due out next year. It’s a fantasy book but in the Dahl rather than the Tolkien sense. I’m also working on another adult novel.

Reader Reviews

A. I’m not too precious. As someone who plays fast and loose with the Shakespearian canon, it would be a bit hypocritical of me if I stopped other people interpreting my own work in a different way to how I envisaged. And David Heyman, the film producer who has optioned The Dead Fathers Club, has a lot of great ideas of how he sees the film, so I’m happy to leave it in his capable hands.

Philip Noble is an eleven-year-old in crisis. His pub landlord father has died in a road accident and his mother is succumbing to the greasy charms of her dead husband’s brother. The remaining certainties of Philip’s life crumble away when his father’s ghost appears to declare that he was murdered. Cleverly constructed narrative convinces the reader that this is a young child relating, explaining and describing both major and trivial incidents in his life. If you enjoyed The Sixth Sense you’ll find this book compulsive reading. It offers some pertinent observations about the human condition . . . be prepared for a highly dramatic conclusion. and I knew that he hadnt done anything wrong because he was a policeman and policemen only say sorry if something very bad has happened. So I knew right then what the pain in my stomach was. And I saw the policeman leave and the hat was in his hand but not on his chest any more like the Bad News had been in there and set free. And I saw Mum and she saw me but didnt see me properly and she went to the corner of the hall by the radiator and sat down in a ball and cried and shook her head in her hands and said No no no no no and everywhere round us looked the same but bigger and I wanted to go and tell her it was OK but that would have been a lie and so I just sat there and did nothing.

The problem was, how do you find someone? Acting prodigies aside, how do you find a kid who can deliver a 7-hour narration of a book based on a Shakespearean play? And, oh yes, Ruben is American and the boy had to be British.