On the shores of a vast and ancient lake stands a tiny cottage where Franny Hale once raised her children over a century ago. Now, the cottage has been sold to a woman seeking a simpler life, but Franny remains, tipping paintings, chilling the air, pushing papers to the floor, and appearing again and again, shadowy, restless, and wanting. The narrator—whose name remains a mystery—shares her own memories and reflections, weaving together fragments of the past that are both surprising and ordinary. As summer unfolds and the days grow shorter, the ghostly presence of Franny begins to fade, leaving behind questions of what remains after the story seems to conclude. Come Back, I Love You (A Ghost Story) invites readers to explore the intertwining of memory and existence, revealing that every narrative, filled with tragedy or triumph, may not truly end. Is a final breath or sigh the end, or merely a transition into something new? This haunting tale challenges the boundaries of life and legacy, bidding contemplation on what lingers in the spaces we leave behind.

Praise for Come Back, I Love You (A Ghost Story)

“Come Back, I Love You is a lyrical, mystical tale of a woman’s search for herself amid the ghosts of her past –– and one she was not expecting.”

—Howard Owen, author of 24 novels, including Littlejohn and the Willie Black mystery series

“Kathleen Novak is a wise and resourceful author, and her fifth novel a pleasing blend of stranger-in-town trope, prose poetry, and ghost story. Set on a northern lake—as much a character as a landscape—an unnamed protagonist has abandoned her past for this tiny cottage in the middle of nowhere, her narrative teasing back and forth between a life once lived and the life she has now. Still waters run deep, and time has a funny way of slipping by. Novak knows this and delicately manages the reader’s expectations and desires.”

—Richard Peabody, editor, Gargoyle Magazine

“Come Back, I Love You is a poetic, gothic pentimento of leaving and finding home. Satisfying, lyrical, haunting, one of those can’t-put-it-down reads. We never learn the narrator’s true name, adding to the mystery. She might be any of us.”

—Carolyn Colburn, author of Morlocks in the Basement and Minimum Maintenance

"An examination of death that is anything but elegiac, Come Back, I Love You is a poetical respite from the frenzy of life, an evocative contemplation, a paean to peace and tranquility."

—Chris Knopf, author of the Sam Acquillo Hamptons Mysteries

"Kathleen Novak writes skillfully about the human feelings—love, loneliness, ambivalence and fear— that shape her characters’ lives, relationships and ultimate destinies.  Come Back, I Love You is a quiet, powerful novel."

—Dine Watson, author of Transplant, 2023 Washington Writers’ Publishing House Nonfiction Prize winner

“Does everyone think they will return?” the protagonist, who calls herself Floria, wonders in Kathleen Novak’s captivating novel, Come Back, I Love You. There’s so much heart in this book. For romantic loves, lost and found. For parents and grandparents. For elderly neighbors we’ve only just met. There’s a sweetness here of the finest, non-cloying variety that sneaks up on you, leaves you rooting for our hero, and, finally, leaves you breathless."   

—Andrew Furman, author of Jewish and The World That We Are

“With a voice as ethereal and luminous as the novel’s subject, Kathleen Novak lulls the reader across the thin line between here and the hereafter, exploring how we show up for others—or don’t, creating our own fleeting realities. Lakeside, summer—the story’s lush setting is finely etched, masterfully evoking how a person’s longing for a place is as strong as any love for a person. Come Back, I Love You [A Ghost Story] is a marvel.”

—Margaret Hutton, author of If You Leave