The Midnight Timetable

A Novel in Ghost Stories From the author of the National Book Award finalist and Booker Prize–shortlisted Cursed Bunny, this new novel-in-ghost-stories unfolds inside a strange research institute devoted to housing cursed objects, where the rules of reality are unstable, and a door left behind may no longer exist when you turn back for it. Set during the night shift at the Institute, the story follows a new employee who quickly learns why turnover is so high. Each room contains an artifact with a disturbing history and a lingering, often malicious presence. In Room 302, a handkerchief once belonging to a mother becomes a conduit for familial rivalry and psychological unraveling. A pair of sneakers in another corridor ensnares a livestreaming ghost hunter in an inescapable loop. In Room 206, a cat seems to carry the memory (and guilt) of its former family, drawing its own quiet path into the Institute’s mysteries. As the night deepens, the Institute reveals itself as more than a repository of the uncanny. Through interconnected tales of haunting and transformation, the novel exposes the violence beneath everyday systems; animal testing, conversion therapy, domestic abuse, and the dehumanizing logic of late-stage capitalism, rendered through darkly imaginative, often unsettling allegory. Bone-chilling, sharply intelligent, and unexpectedly wry, The Midnight Timetable is a haunting exploration of the stories we contain—and the ones that refuse to stay contained.