Voice of our Shadow by Jonathan Carroll

The protagonist of this story is Joe Lennox, and in the first part of this book he tells us about a childhood spent in the shadow of his charismatic and unruly older brother, and about the guilt he still feels regarding the accident that killed him at age sixteen. Now let us fast forward about ten years. Joe is a moderately successful writer living in Vienna. His first published short story, based on some of the experiences of his brother and his equally rebellious best friend, has been adapted into a very successful play. Joe is not exactly unhappy, but he is lonely.

Then one day he meets Paul and India Tate. They’re an American couple in their early forties who turn out to be the exact kind of friends Joe has been looking for his whole life. Everything is perfect for a few months, but things take a tragic turn when it becomes undeniable that Joe and India are falling in love.

As you may have gathered, the fantasy elements of this story are subtle – in fact, they are barely visible at all until a little over halfway through the book. But from the very start, there is a faint strangeness to the story – the mood is a little unsettling, and you realize that the world you’re seeing through Joe’s eyes is haunted and unique.

Jonathan Carroll is a wonderful writer. He lures you into the story and does not let go until the very end. I couldn't put this book down, and once I did put it down, because it was over, I wanted to go back and start reading it all over again. Voice of our Shadow is an odd and memorable book about love and longing, regret and guilt, and the past catching up with you even when you think you'd left it safely behind.

This book has an unforgettable ending, one of those that can be read in several ways, all of which are chilling. Once you get to the end, you realize that the book will never be the same again. You can’t read it twice in the same manner. Everything gains a new significance. The more I think about this story – and I have been doing that a great deal for the past 24 hours – the more I realize how well everything fits together, how brilliant and eerie the whole thing is.

Voice of our Shadow reminded me a little of a more subtle Heart-Shaped Box (Heart-Shaped Box is creepy as you read it, but Voice of our Shadow only becomes so in retrospect). I guess that what I mean is mostly that both are stories in which the supernatural plays an important role, but that at their core are about people and their secrets and the toll they take on their emotional lives.

Voice of our Shadow is a love story, a ghost story, and a deliciously strange and unique book. I highly recommend it.