“The Ghost in the Backseat” by Jan Carson, Cruel Ulster – Libération

The Northern Irish author publishes a collection of short stories and the supernatural.

Grandpa and Granny started making jam. To expand their new business, they bought a car to go on tour, from the coast to the border. As in all the short stories in this collection, we are in Northern Ireland. In the 1980s, against a backdrop of attacks, “people have other things on their minds” only jams. “Granny is up to the challenge. “You know me,” she said. I would be able to sell snow to the Eskimos. “Forget the Eskimos,” said Grandpa. It’s shoving marmalade to the people of Ulster that will get us out of this quagmire.’” The 1982 Polaris Gray Sierra that Granny drives was sold with all its accessories. Including the original owner, deceased, sinister smoking presence in the back seat. Only Ruth can see it. “The Ghost in the Backseat” is arguably the most purely fantastical text of the lot. The specter is not very serious, but there is a real happy end. Which is not so common with Jan Carson.

Infant tipped into water

In a few words, the writer places the reader in a rural and village daily life, family spheres depicted as closely as possible, with a blurring of reality and an unexpected outcome. “I begin my stories with a metaphor, rarely with