2014 - Spirit House, Mark Dapin | Wagga Wagga City Library

Photos: author Mark Dapin in conversation with interviewer Amy Heap, author Mark Dapin, the cover of Spirit House, the Gala Dinner display at Wagga RSL, and members of the Australian Army Band Kapooka perform at the Gala Dinner.

Mark holds a microphone in front of a golden lamplit display of his book, and is speaking with interviewer Amy Heap

Mark Dapin is in black and white, wearing a cap, and looking without smiling at the camera.

The cover for Spirit House features a yellow and sepia-toned image of a WWII-era soldier and woman embracing.

A large poster advertising the Gala Dinner with Mark Dapin, situated in the Wagga RSL upstairs foyer

Onstage, beside a display of Mark Dapin's book, a sax player is laying down a tasty lick.

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The first book chosen for One Book One Wagga was Mark Dapin's Spirit House.

13 year-old David is staying in Bondi with his grandparents. His mum seems to have abandoned him to run off with her lover, and his grandfather, Jimmy, spends his days at the local RSL grumbling with his best mates, all of them Jewish survivors of the Thai–Burma Railway. But underneath their bickering and banter struggle three men haunted by the ghosts of long-dead comrades.

Over 300 library members borrowed Spirit House, in Wagga's first attempt at a city-wide book club, and over 100 of them attended the Gala Dinner held at the Wagga RSL Club Mirage Room on Friday 9 May, with interviewer Amy Heap. Members of the Australian Army Band Kapooka provided live music for the evening.

Spirit House was shortlisted for the Royal Society of Literature Ondaatje Prize, and later went on to be shortlisted for The Age Book of the Year, and longlisted for the Miles Franklin Literary Award.