The Book Prize Index

The Haunting of Alma Fielding: A True Ghost Story

Kate Summerscale

London, 1938. Alma Fielding, an ordinary young woman, begins to experience supernatural events in her suburban home. Nandor Fodor - a Jewish-Hungarian refugee and chief ghost hunter for the International Institute for Psychical research - begins to investigate. In doing so he discovers a different and darker type of haunting: trauma, alienation, loss - and the foreshadowing of a nation's worst fears. As the spectre of Fascism lengthens over Europe, and as Fodor's obsession with the case deepens, Alma becomes ever more disturbed. With rigour, daring and insight, the award-winning pioneer of historical narrative non-fiction Kate Summerscale shadows Fodor's enquiry, delving into long-hidden archives to find the human story behind a very modern haunting.

Society & CultureSociety & Culture · medium confidenceSociety & Culture81 signalsLlm Classifier: Society & Culture -> Society & CultureGoogle Books: History -> HistoryKeyword Classifier: Gender & Sexuality -> Gender & SexualityDeath, Memory & CommemorationArchives, Museums & Historical MethodDisability & Difference

Award History

0 wins · 1 total

AwardYearResultCategory / Notes
Baillie Gifford Prize for Non-FictionMajor2020FinalistSecondary source
View all award history (1)
Experimental book profileGenerated by GPT-5.4 nano · may contain inaccuracies

This is an unverified interpretation of the catalog description, offered as an opt-in discovery experiment—not as bibliographic fact.

  1. 01 Central figures

    • Nandor Fodor78%
    • Alma Fielding75%

  2. 02 Central places

    • London80%

  3. 03 Suggested argument

    No argument inferred with sufficient confidence.

  4. 04 Reading orientation

    48 / 100 academic

    Trade / academic crossover

    An estimate of intended readership and scholarly apparatus—not quality or importance.

Confidence percentages are the model's own estimates. Profile confidence: 78%.