{"product_id":"9780062249234","title":"American Ghost: A Family's Extraordinary History on the Desert Frontier","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e“A haunting story about the long reach of the past.”—Maureen Corrigan, NPR’S \u003cem\u003eFresh Air\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e“In this intriguing book, [Nordhaus] shares her journey to discover who her immigrant ancestor really was—and what strange alchemy made the idea of her linger long after she was gone.” —\u003cem\u003ePeople\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eLa Posada—“place of rest”—was once a grand Santa Fe mansion. It belonged to Abraham and Julia Staab, who emigrated from Germany in the mid-nineteenth century. After they died, the house became a hotel. And in the 1970s, the hotel acquired a resident ghost—a sad, dark-eyed woman in a long gown. Strange things began to happen there: vases moved, glasses flew, blankets were ripped from beds. Julia Staab died in 1896—but her ghost, they say, lives on.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eIn \u003cem\u003eAmerican Ghost\u003c\/em\u003e, Julia’s great-great-granddaughter, Hannah Nordhaus, traces her ancestor’s transfiguration from nineteenth-century Jewish bride to modern phantom. Family diaries, photographs, and newspaper clippings take her on a riveting journey through three hundred years of German history and the American immigrant experience. With the help of historians, genealogists, family members, and ghost hunters, she weaves a masterful, moving story of fin-de-siècle Europe and pioneer life, villains and visionaries, medicine and spiritualism, imagination and truth, exploring how lives become legends, and what those legends tell us about who we are.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"HarperCollins","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47119193374960,"sku":"9780062249234","price":17.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0737\/7593\/9824\/files\/9780062249234_p0.jpg?v=1772497399","url":"https:\/\/shop-qa.barnesandnoble.com\/products\/9780062249234","provider":"Barnes \u0026 Noble (DEV)","version":"1.0","type":"link"}