How do we learn from ghosts? Perhaps a surprising question, but an answerable one, if we draw on the philosophical tradition, and engage carefully with works of literature and history. In this presentation, I explore the ghost and haunting: first, to show its metaphorical meaning, and second, to exemplify the haunting in David Guterson’s novel Snow Falling on Cedars and its ghostly relationship to the Pacific Northwest. In doing so, I argue that reading haunted fiction offers us an opportunity to learn about the reality of history and the effect the past has on us.