For a character who engages in as much internal monologuing as Philip, there’s initially very little ambivalence over his mission. There’s no moralizing about whether it’s right to take Alan’s life, but maybe that makes sense. Life is simpler at 11: Philip loved his father, his father’s ghost says Alan must die, and so Alan must die. The problem, though, is that his father’s ghost – who at first appears to be omniscient and gifted with preternatural awareness – makes an increasing number of inaccurate predictions, some of which have disastrous consequences. And this brings Philip to a crossroads: Is his father an tortured spirit or just a spiteful douchebag? And if it’s the latter, is his death still worth avenging? And then they went into the office and shut the door and I could hear nothing for ages and then I heard Mum. She was howling like a WOLF and the noise hurt my stomach and I closed my eyes to try and hear the policeman and all he was saying was Im sorry and he kept on saying it With an aura of both enchantment and authenticity, Bardugo’s compulsively readable novel leaves a portal ajar for equally dazzling sequels. You do a fine job of evoking Philip’s preadolescent alienation, both from his family and his peers. What enabled you to write so sensitively about Philip’s feelings of inferiority and exclusion?

This is a very impressive novel; it’s being published as mainstream (and the Hamlet parallels throw it solidly into the literary-novel category rather than genre fantasy), but anyone with a passing familiarity with the plot of Hamlet could read it with great appreciation. Whatever you call it, it will be one of the major fantasy novels of 2007; it’s that good. Andrew Wheeler, senior editor at the Science Fiction Book Club Carol Suzzane Noble– Mother of Phillip, Carol marries Alan and is unaware of the presence of Brian’s ghost. Phillip cares a lot for his mother, who is one of his only last sources of comfort. Wisely I think, the author sustains the bizarre events by throwing in a fair bit of humour across much of the story. The protagonist, Philip Noble, is a few years younger than the Hamlet of the original tale, allowing the author to present the story through the eyes of a confused child. However, the mood can’t be maintained in the last quarter, when things get a lot darker and there is a distinct tension with the earlier section of the book. Actually at this point I wondered whether I was going to write a review saying the book hadn’t succeeded for me, but it was saved by its ending, which gives the reader something to think about. If Hamlet were 11, he might write this. What I liked about this book, The Dead Fathers Club by Matt Haig, is that although it’s what they call an adult novel it is written just like an 11-year-old kid talks. I am not English like the boy in the book, Philip Noble, and I am a little bit older – 12 – but I can understand him very well. . .It’s good and it doesn’t sound like a grown-up trying to be a kid . . . Roger K Miller, Philadelphia Inquirer 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?

Ma non è solo una questione di stile, anche la struttura narrativa non regge: i riferimenti a Shakespeare sono continui e insistiti (Matt, abbiamo capito a pagina 2... basta così), le strizzate d'occhio al lettore ininterrotte (si, Matt, lo sappiamo che adesso questo che sembra Polonio muore), i personaggi si muovono per l'inerzia della trama Shakespeareana ma qui non hanno carattere, motivazioni, le cose avvengono senza un perché, i personaggi non seguono logiche e pensieri, agiscono e basta... 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 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. Matt Haig’s extraordinary second novel pushes and pulls at Shakespeare’s play, pokes and prods at it in such a way that only half the fun is to be found in spotting the parallels. The story is so surprising and strange that it vaults into a realm all of its own . . . most of all it allows Haig to indulge his innocently acute eye for detail and his delightfully weird imagination. One’s heart goes out to a boy torn between a selfish ghost (“If you ever loved me . . . “) and a foolish mother, and one naturally fears for him, knowing the fate of the first Hamlet. But Haig borrows from Shakespeare in the same spirit that Shakespeare borrowed from his own sources. One is never sure where the story is going next, and that’s what makes the book such sad fun. Gerard Woodward, The Guardian

This meant having absolutely no life for four months, living on cereal and toast, getting through pens at a rate of one a day, and having surreal dreams about tropical fish and Roman Emperors. We are already on our second full shipment of this terrific novel and we’re getting such great responses from the early readers. Very highly recommended. Rakestraw Readers Recommend – the Best in New Books Philip is a breathless storyteller who seldom stops for punctuation but whose honesty and innocence, which shine from every sentence, are utterly captivating and heartbreakingly poignant. The result is an absolutely irresistible read. Booklist (starred review) A ghost story with a twist—a suspenseful and poignantly funny update of the Hamlet story. Eleven-year-old Philip Noble has a big problem: His dad, who was killed in a car accident, appears as a bloodstained ghost at his own funeral and introduces Philip to the Dead Fathers Club. The club, whose members were all murdered, gathers outside the Castle and Falcon, the local pub that Philip’s family owns and lives above. Philip’s father tells him that Uncle Alan killed him and he must avenge his death. When Philip realizes that Uncle Alan has designs on his mom and the family pub, Philip decides that something must be done. But it’s a much bigger job than he anticipated, especially when he is caught up by the usual distractions of childhood—a pretty girl, wayward friends, school bullies, and his own self-doubt. The Dead Fathers Club is a riveting, imaginative, and quirky update of Shakespeare’s great tragedy that will establish Matt Haig as a young writer of great talent and imagination. The Dead Fathers Club by Matt Haig – eBook DetailsAs with a lot of Matt Haig's writing, he manages to lay bare human emotion, and put it into relateable sentences. Enlivening this remarkable novel from start to finish is the narrative voice of Philip himself. Lonely, misunderstood, but thoughtful beyond his years, Philip struggles to express his complex fears of both life and death in the journal that his school counselor encourages him to keep. As Matt Haig leads us to question the motives of Philip’s family and friends, as well as the true nature of Philip’s father’s ghost, he gradually evolves a brilliant contradictory portrait of his central character. Is he precociously philosophical or pathetically mad? Is he a foolish boy, or a fount of strange forbidden wisdom? Must he follow Hamlet’s destiny to the bitter end, or will he summon the courage to regain control of his fate? Not until the shattering conclusion do the deep mysteries of the story become clear. 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. Its closest comparison is probably something like Mark Haddon’s The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time, a book written for adults but which I know is taught in some high schools. Like that book, The Dead Fathers club features a young narrator – 11-year-old Philip – who is precocious and insightful, but who probably lies somewhere on the autism spectrum. His narration is often an unfiltered stream-of-conscious jumble of sights, sounds, and impressions, such as this passage that comes early in the book when his mother receives news of his father’s death:

My intention was to write a story that connects with people emotionally and hopefully that connection works the same with or without an in-depth knowledge of Hamlet. After all, Shakespeare himself was the king of rewrites, and Hamlet itself echoes earlier vengeance stories. A beguiling read, filled with warmth and humour, and a vibrant celebration of the power of books to change lives."F. Scott Fitzgerald said when he wrote he felt like he was holding his breath and swimming under water. With The Dead Fathers Club it was certainly written at quite a breathless, intense level, and came from a place I can’t easily locate. But once I had the voice, it was there and I was able to see everything through Philip’s eyes. During the course of his narrative, Philip Noble, commits a series of crimes that grow increasingly serious. Despite his criminal behavior, does he continue to move the sympathies of the reader? By what means does he do so?

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. Despite this, I could gather from Philip's perspective, just how heartbreaking and confusing seeing the ghost of his dad was, after losing him tragically. I think seeing his ghost was a way of him dealing with the grief he had. Ot was also refreshing to see a child's viewpoint of adult situations, and what they must think or how it impacts them. Phillip is encouraged by his deceased father to steal a mini-bus to supposedly prevent Alan from breaking into the pub and is shown several chemicals that could potentially kill his father's murderer. During this time Phillip is assigned to therapy sessions and begins a relationship with Leah, the daughter of a business partner in the garage Alan works at, which Brian does not approve of. It begins with the death of Phillips father, shortly followed by the appearance of his ghost saying that Phillip's uncle killed his father and Phillip must take revenge. Phillip tests the truth of this the same way Hamlet does, only with a DVD instead of personally directed play. 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!Alan Peter Noble– Alan, the antagonist, has supposedly killed his brother, Brian, by dismantling his brakes on his car. According to Brian’s ghost, he is only out to steal Phillip’s mother and take the pub for himself. Leah confides to Philip that she hates God. By contrast, her father, Mr. Fairview, has turned enthusiastically toward religion after the death of his wife. What commentary does The Dead Fathers Club offer regarding religion, and how does religion influence events and relationships in the novel? We now owe another debt to Shakespeare, and one to Haig, for re-imagining a tragic masterpiece with such wit, force and—yes—originality.