Spirit House by Mark Dapin is about demons, demons that haunt and torment an elderly war veteran's thoughts and memories as he tries to come to terms with the loss, pain, and intense grief he suffered from events that occurred over 40 years ago when he was a WWII prisoner of war in the notorious Changi prison.

The story, told through thirteen year old David, is set in Bondi, Sydney in 1990. David is temporarily residing with his fathers parents. In his eyes he is there because his parents, who are separated and trying to get on with their current respective partners, don't seem to want him around.

His grandfather, an elderly war veteran, who has kept the horrors of his time as a prisoner of war in Changi bottled deeply inside, takes him under his wing and begins to tell his story to his grandson. The story is told in flashbacks to 1944 and the building of the Burma Railway and conveys all the deprivation, dehumanisation and utter demoralisation of the human spirit that the POW's experienced.

Jimmy, the grandfather, has episodes where he looses himself in his memories and relives events that occurred over 40 years previous. With David in tow, Jimmy embarks on a cathartic journey and, while doing so. reveals his horrific story. The journey is what provides the title of the book it's meaning.

There is a second layer to this book that involves the interactions between the various players: David and Jimmy, Jimmy's and his wife and son, Jimmy and his three comrades at arms who shared in the horrors and survived. These relationships are heartfelt, deep and warm and bring a layer of poignancy, and at times humour to counter balance the underlying horror of what Jimmy is dealing with.

Although this is a work of fiction, Mark Dapin has deeply researched his material to convey to the reader the somewhat of the reality of living and working to build the Burma Railway. Dapin has traversed the length of the railway and visited sites where camps once stood and where cemeteries now stand. He has also visited the infamous Hellfire Pass and has made several visits the the site of Changi Jail.

For those who will, thankfully, never experience the horrors of war it is beneficial to be able to gain some small insight into what so many of our forefathers went through and then in many cases carried to their graves.

Macmillan Press 2011
ISBN 9781405040181