Afterlife (PDF) (Print)

Afterlife: Ghost Stories From Goa starts with a happy event. The Fonseca family are all gathered together in the Carvalho mansion. They have come together to celebrate Savio Fonseca’s 75th birthday. Savio’s daughters, who have both settled abroad, have come for the occasion. Joanna, Carol, and Savio’s son-in-law Sam, are all sitting together, when Eduardo, Savio’s cousin, drops in with his wife. It is the night before the occasion. The family have enjoyed a good feast, when the power suddenly fails and all the lights go out. Left in the dark, the atmosphere is set for the sharing of spooky stories. The fact that Joanna, who is an author, is set to release a book of ghost stories as her third publication adds to the interest. So, the family members start swapping spooky stories. There are eight stories in Afterlife: Ghost Stories From Goa. The stories are divided into two sections. Each character tells a story. The stories are connected to the Fonseca family and are intricately tied up with the history of the family. There is a story of a young boy who is haunted by an older man’s spirit, the story of a man who buys a Venetian goblet which then seems to cast a spell over his life, and a tale of a dying relative who is visited by a bird (koel) that seems to be the reincarnation of someone she knew. Amidst all this, the author also reveals the personalities, characteristics, and the hopes and dreams of the various members of the Fonseca family. The family name itself seems to be a very principal character, with Lillian, Savio’s wife, caring even more about preserving its honor than Savio himself. Some of the other tales in the book are about a college girl who is forced to spend the night in a haunted library with a tragic result and a man who takes a shortcut across a cemetery and is then haunted by a face that he can’t seem to shake from his memory. Slowly, though, all the tales gradually build up in Afterlife: Ghost Stories From Goa to reveal the history of the Fonseca family, a secret that Savio and Lillian had jealously guarded from their daughters.