The Weekly Pour: Ghost Town by Tom Perotta
And….we’re at it again Meridian book lovers, with another Weekly Pour — and we are so glad you’re here. Pull up a chair, pour something good, and let's dig in together.
This week we're sharing Ghost Town, the latest from Tom Perrotta, the mind behind The Leftovers and Election. It's a ghost story, a coming-of-age tale, and a meditation on grief and memory all rolled into one — the kind of book that leaves you thinking about your own past long after you've closed the cover.
If you really want to set the mood, we're sipping alongside some of our own Snake River Valley favorites — Cinder Syrah for the brooding, melancholy chapters, and Veer Mataro for the moments that catch you off guard. Both feel right at home with this one.
We can't wait to hear what it stirred up for you.
About the Book
From Tom Perrotta—the Steinbeck of Suburbia, the Balzac of the Burbs—comes a novel that is equal parts coming-of-age story and quietly devastating ghost story. It is the summer before high school in 1970s Creamwood, New Jersey, and Jimmy Perrini is drowning in grief after tragedy strikes his family. Untethered from friends and his overworked father, he drifts into the orbits of two older teenagers: a notorious burnout with a fast car and an endless supply of weed, and a strange, brilliant girl who has convinced herself that her Ouija board can bridge the gap between the living and the dead.
Now middle-aged and a literary-turned-commercial novelist, Jimmy receives an invitation to return to Creamwood to help honor his late father's memory. He goes back for himself—to make peace with the boy he was and the man he became. Ghost Town is narrated by that older Jimmy, who understands, at last, that our ghosts are always with us, even when we think we've outrun them.
Publishers Weekly gave it a starred review: a confident storyteller packing tremendous heart into a tale of crushing grief and moving forward. Kirkus called it an atmospheric elegy to innocence lost. LitHub named it one of the most anticipated books of 2026.
Perfect for fans of: Coming-of-age literary fiction · 1970s nostalgia · Grief narratives · Suburban Americana · Tom Perrotta's Election and The Leftovers · Emma Straub · Jess Walter · Tayari Jones
Why We Love It
Perrotta has always understood the particular loneliness of American suburbia, but Ghost Town is darker and more elegiac than his previous work. The 1970s New Jersey setting crackles with detail—Star-Ledger delivered to the stoop, station wagons idling in driveways, the particular ache of an unsupervised summer when something has gone terribly wrong at home. The dual timeline between young Jimmy and older Jimmy gives the novel a haunting double exposure that lingers long after the final page.
It is a book about grief, memory, and the stories we finally allow ourselves to tell.
Choose Your Pour:
🍷 For the quiet, mournful mood: Cinder Syrah
Cinder produces a deep, complex Syrah from Snake River Valley grapes, and it's a perfect match for this novel's emotional register. Named after the volcanic cinder beneath many of the vineyards they work with, Cinder has been hailed as one of the West's best urban wineries.
Their Syrah is brooding and structured — the kind of wine you open slowly, the way Perrotta unfolds Jimmy's story across 50 years of distance and regret. The dark fruit and earthy depth echo the novel's undercurrent of grief that never fully resolves.
Mood match: The long backward glance. A man returning to the town he fled.
🍾 For the supernatural, curious, off-kilter moments: Veer Wine Project Mataro (Mourvèdre):
Veer — which means "a sudden change in direction" — was founded by winemaker Will Wetmore as a way to experiment with different fermentation styles and techniques, a project driven by curiosity. That spirit maps perfectly onto the novel's Ouija board scenes and the strange, liminal summer Jimmy inhabits.
The Mataro (Mourvèdre) is a brooding wine displaying earthiness, white pepper, and red fruit — fitting for a novel where the past keeps surfacing in unexpected, unsettling ways.
Mood match: The séance. The Ouija board. The moment you feel something you can't quite explain.
Happy Reading (and Sipping!)
The Book Lounge Crew
