Ghostwritten: Summary and book reviews of Ghostwritten by David Mitchell, plus links to an excerpt from Ghostwritten and a biography of David Mitchell.
Ghostwritten A Novel
by David Mitchell
Hardcover: Sep 2000,
448 pages.
Paperback: Oct 2001,
448 pages.
A gallery attendant at the Hermitage. A young jazz buff in Tokyo. A crooked British lawyer in Hong Kong. A disc jockey in Manhattan. A physicist in Ireland. An elderly woman running a tea shack in rural China. A cult-controlled terrorist in Okinawa. A musician in London. A transmigrating spirit in Mongolia. What is the common thread of coincidence or destiny that connects the lives of these nine souls in nine far-flung countries, stretching across the globe from east to west? What pattern do their linked fates form through time and space?
A writer of pyrotechnic virtuosity and profound compassion, a mind to which nothing human is alien, David Mitchell spins genres, cultures, and ideas like gossamer threads around and through these nine linked stories. Many forces bind these lives, but at root all involve the same universal longing for connection and transcendence, an axis of commonality that leads in two directions--to creation and to destruction. In the end, as lives converge with a fearful symmetry, Ghostwritten comes full circle, to a point at which a familiar idea--that whether the planet is vast or small is merely a matter of perspective--strikes home with the force of a new revelation. It marks the debut of a writer of astonishing gifts.
BOOK REVIEWS
Media Reviews
Publishers Weekly
Nine disparate but interconnected tales (and a short coda) in Mitchell's impressive debut examine 21st-century notions of community, coincidence, causality, catastrophe and fate. Each episode in this mammoth sociocultural tapestry is related in the first person, and set in a different international locale....Already a sensation on its publication in England, Mitchell's wildly variegated story can be abstruse and elusive in its larger themes, but the gorgeous prose and vibrant, original construction make this an accomplishment not to be missed.
The Observer (UK) - Adam Lively
David Mitchell's first novel is a firework display. . . . The assurance and panache are truly remarkable. . . . This is a remarkable novel by a young writer of remarkable talent.
The Independent (UK) - Lawrence Norfolk
Every one of these pages deserves and demands to be read and re-read. Ghostwritten is an astonishing debut.
The Independent (UK) - Lawrence Norfolk
Every one of these pages deserves and demands to be read and re-read. Ghostwritten is an astonishing debut.
The Observer (UK) - Adam Lively
David Mitchell's first novel is a firework display. . . . The assurance and panache are truly remarkable. . . . This is a remarkable novel by a young writer of remarkable talent.
Express on Sunday (UK) - Rachel Cusk
Boundless, fully imagined . . .the best modern novel I have read for some time.
Express on Sunday (UK) - Rachel Cusk
Boundless, fully imagined . . .the best modern novel I have read for some time.
Tibor Fischer
An astounding novel.
A. S. Byatt
This is one of the best first novels I've read for a long time. It's told in a series of gripping, interconnecting tales, in many voices, all of them imaginatively urgent. For all the plot's dazzling complexity, Mitchell's writing--which has many styles--is always simple and elegant. His people always engage the imagination, and the book is never clotted by its ambitions. It easily covers the global village but there's no sense that it's striving for multiculturalism or spectacular effects--just that Mitchell knows what he's doing. I read a proof of this on a transatlantic flight. When I got off in Atlanta, I couldn't put it down. I pulled my luggage in one hand along corridors and escalators, and held David Mitchell's last chapter up to my nose with the other. I finished at the carousel. It seemed appropriate. And it's even better the second time.
A. S. Byatt
This is one of the best first novels I've read for a long time. It's told in a series of gripping, interconnecting tales, in many voices, all of them imaginatively urgent. For all the plot's dazzling complexity, Mitchell's writing--which has many styles--is always simple and elegant. His people always engage the imagination, and the book is never clotted by its ambitions. It easily covers the global village but there's no sense that it's striving for multiculturalism or spectacular effects--just that Mitchell knows what he's doing. I read a proof of this on a transatlantic flight. When I got off in Atlanta, I couldn't put it down. I pulled my luggage in one hand along corridors and escalators, and held David Mitchell's last chapter up to my nose with the other. I finished at the carousel. It seemed appropriate. And it's even better the second time.
Recent Reader Reviews
Rated of 5
by supernova
I love this book. You have to take your time but if you pay attention you will marvel at how intricitly woven this plot is, I mean come on I'm 16 and I can appreciate it. David Mitchell is such an educated, worldly, and diverse writer, he's... Read More
Review (not rated)
by frauna
I dindn't understand the novel, I' sorry. What happened to the little girl who was born in Mongolia? there is more than one noncorpa? Who the hell was His Serendipity? And the russian girl? Please, help me.
War, natural disaster, reckless gods and the recognition of impermanence in the world are just some of the threads that AS Byatt weaves into this most timely of books. Linguistically stunning and imaginatively abundant, this is a landmark.
A beguiling, imaginative, inspiring story about the bigness of being alive as an individual, as a member of a tribe, and as a participant in history, exploring how we use storytelling to survive and shape our own truths.
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Tibor Fischer
of 5
by supernova
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