A Fine & Private Place - Peter S. Beagle

For nineteen years, Jonathan Rebeck has hidden from the world within the confines of the Bronx's Yorkchester Cemetery, making an abandoned mausoleum his secret home. He speaks with the newly dead as they pass from life to wherever spirits finally go, providing them with comfort, an understanding ear, and even the occasional game of chess. But Mr. Rebeck's reclusive life is soon to be disrupted. An impossible love has blossomed between two ghosts at Yorkchester Cemetery, and Rebeck finds himself drawn to a living woman. Helped along by a cynical raven and a mysterious security guard, these four souls must learn the true difference between life and death and make choices that really are forever. Told with an elegiac wisdom, Peter S. Beagle's first novel is a timeless work of fantasy, imbued with hope and wonder. This updated edition contains the author's final revisions and stands as the definitive version of an enduring modern classic.