A Ghostly Little Book: Five Authors, New Ghost Stories and What’s Inside

A ghost story does not need hundreds of pages to get under your skin. Sometimes a brief encounter with something impossible is enough to make an ordinary room feel different.

A Ghostly Little Book takes that compact approach, bringing together five contemporary writers for a collection of newly written supernatural tales. Olga Ravn, Roddy Doyle, Eliza Clark, Tom Crewe and Helen Oyeyemi are the contributors named in Penguin’s current listing.

For readers putting together an October reading list, the attraction is straightforward: five different literary voices exploring the same unsettling territory. Here is what to know before picking it up.

What Is A Ghostly Little Book?

A Ghostly Little Book: Five Frightening Tales from Five Essential Writers is a ghost-story anthology. Rather than gathering familiar classics, it presents stories specially written for the collection.

The current Penguin listing describes a mix of supernatural encounters, including haunted communications and spirits seeking revenge. Its description also suggests tonal variety, with humor and warmth alongside fear.

That range is the interesting part of the premise. A haunting can be frightening because something appears, but it can also be unsettling because someone refuses to disappear. The anthology’s setup leaves room for both approaches.

This is a guide based on the publisher’s information, rather than a review of the five stories.

Who Are the Five Authors?

The contributors make this more than an anonymous collection of seasonal scares. Readers may recognize some names from literary fiction and others from darker, stranger territory.

Olga Ravn

Ravn is the Danish author of The Employees and My Work. The Employees was shortlisted for the 2021 International Booker Prize.

Her inclusion offers readers who know her longer fiction a chance to encounter her work in a different form. It also makes the anthology an accessible introduction for anyone curious about her writing.

Roddy Doyle

Doyle is the author of Paddy Clarke Ha Ha Ha, which won the 1993 Booker Prize. His presence is a reminder that a ghost-story collection can draw on writers whose reputations extend well beyond horror.

If Doyle is the name that brings you to this book, the anthology format provides an opportunity to discover four other contributors along the way.

Eliza Clark

Clark’s books include Boy Parts, Penance and the short-story collection She’s Always Hungry.

For readers already interested in her fiction, a newly commissioned story is a clear reason to investigate this collection. Her previous short-story book also gives newcomers somewhere to go afterward if they want more of her work.

Tom Crewe

Crewe is the author of The New Life and an editor at the London Review of Books.

His contribution adds another reason to approach the anthology with curiosity about its differences. Sharing a supernatural theme does not require five writers to share a setting, style or idea of what makes a story disturbing.

Helen Oyeyemi

Oyeyemi’s fiction includes White Is for Witching and Boy, Snow, Bird. Penguin Random House’s guide to her bookshighlights her use of myth, folklore and imaginative departures from everyday life.

Of the names here, she offers a particularly clear connection for readers interested in the boundary between literary fiction, fairy tales and the uncanny.

What Is Inside the Collection?

The confirmed premise is five new ghost stories by five authors. However, the public publisher description used for this guide does not provide a complete table of contents or individual story summaries.

That means there is a useful distinction between knowing the collection’s overall ingredients and knowing each story’s plot. Penguin’s description establishes a varied supernatural collection; it does not establish which author wrote about each advertised element.

Readers should therefore expect an anthology overview here, rather than a story-by-story breakdown or ending explanation. The individual titles, characters and conclusions have not been independently verified for this article.

Is A Ghostly Little Book Out Now?

Yes. Penguin lists the UK hardback as published on October 1, 2026, under its Viking imprint.

The edition is 160 pages, with hardback ISBN 9780241811665. Ebook and audiobook editions are also listed.

Those details refer to the UK publisher’s editions. Readers buying from the United States should check their chosen retailer for local availability and delivery options.

Who Might Enjoy It?

The strongest audience is readers who like supernatural fiction and want to sample several authors in one volume.

An anthology also suits readers who prefer to pause between stories. You can read one contribution, leave it to settle, and return for another voice without committing to a long novel.

That makes this an appealing format for a seasonal reading project. A reading group could discuss one story at a time, comparing how each writer creates uncertainty, handles an apparition or decides what to leave unexplained.

However, the publisher’s mention of warmth and humor should not be treated as a promise that every story is gentle. Without reading the collection, it would be premature to assign it a scare rating or make detailed claims about its content.

What to Read Alongside It

For a broader autumn reading list, explore our haunting books to read this October.

Readers drawn to atmosphere and disturbing family histories can also browse these Gothic horror novels about haunted families and inherited secrets.

If you would rather settle into a longer work of literary horror, our review of Our Share of Night offers another reading route.

A Ghostly Little Book has a simple hook: a shared theme, a short format and five distinct writers. Whether you arrive for one familiar author or for the pleasure of discovering someone new, that combination gives you a clear reason to look inside.

Which contributor would make you pick up this collection? Let us know in the comments.

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