Tragic, haunting, and immersive, Joel Anderson’s 2008 masterpiece Lake Mungo is one of the finest pieces of ghost storytelling in recent history, literalizing Jacques Derrida’s concept of hauntology, or the persistence of an element of the past.

Hauntings are not restricted to the dead: economic, social, cultural factors, and the very past itself can come to bear on the present. In this interview with Robert McLaughlin, author and lecturer, we discuss hauntology and suburban life.