Safe Return Doubtful

translated from the Polish by Johnny Mains – nonfiction short stories

This is a collection of ghost stories, heavy on folkloric tradition, that Radziwill gathered from many years travelling around the turn of the century in 1900. Their locations range from Russia, Hungary, Ukraine, Poland, Italy, Sweden and Germany.

Interestingly, Radziwill vouches for the authenticity of the tales as they were related to her by members of those royal families in whose castles they appeared, or because she witnessed the apparitions herself.

Don’t come into this expecting the usual sort of fare encountered in ghost stories of that era. Radziwill’s writing is strong on place and period, but her stories are not hers, rather traditional, many dating back to the previous century.

This is something refreshingly different.

My GoodReads score 4 / 5