About the book

Praise for Mark Dapin's previous book, King of the Cross "Dapin is a writer who punches with both hands and winks at the crowd while he's at it." Andrew Rule, author of Underbelly "If you've ever enjoyed journalist Mark Dapin's writing over a Saturday morning coffee then you're in for a treat. If you've never read Mark Dapin's work before, you're in for an even bigger treat, because as great a features writer as he is, as a novelist he's amazing. Think Nick Hornby on a meth binge and you've got the style." Melbourne Times "A fantastic work of crime fiction... with author Mark Dapin constructing a brilliantly funny yet violent and intriguing novel... an impelling read." Launceston Examiner "... Profane, funny and sometimes confronting... This book is not for the easily offended. Hilarious... outrageous... It's a wild, macho ride." The Sydney Morning Herald "...Punctuated by lacerating comic dialogue and scenes of explosive violence, full of the kind of inventive word play and thinly veiled social commentary that make Florida-based crime author Carl Hiaasen so much fun to read – and, as with Hiaasen, there's ample substance beneath the dialogue." The Age, October 10th 2009 "Violent, funny and poignant by turn; if you liked Underbelly, you'll love this" Grazia Magazine, October 19th 2009 "I laughed out loud... The publisher's blurb says the book is 'crime fiction as it's never been written before', and that is a fair call. For starters the level of sex and profanity makes Nick Cave, in his new novel The Death of Bunny Munro, look like the choir boy he once was... Dapin brings to the book the quirky, insightful turn of phrase that makes his newspaper columns for Good Weekend mandatory reading." Stephen Romei, Australian Literary Review "Explosive, gritty, hilarious and – best of all – truly original. This book detonates while you're reading it." Rob Drewe David is thirteen and confused. His mum has gone off with her lover and sent David to his grandparents in Bondi to give her new relationship some "space". Sometimes it breaks your heart to understand. David's grandfather, Jimmy, a Jewish war veteran and survivor of the Thai-Burma railway, is seventy. Haunted by the ghosts of long-dead comrades, the only person he can confide in is a thirteen-year-old from a different world. Sometimes it breaks your heart to be understood. Spirit House is a story of Changi and the Thai-Burma railway, of old men living with the horrors of their past, and a boy making sense of the daunting business of growing up. Funny, wise, disturbing and deeply moving, Spirit House is the brilliant new novel by the award-winning author of King of the Cross.