Ghostwritten : A Novel
by Mitchell, David
- Used
- very good
- Paperback
- Condition
- Very Good
- ISBN 10
- 0340739746
- ISBN 13
- 9780340739747
- Seller
-
Seattle, Washington, United States
Payment Methods Accepted
About This Item
Sceptre, 1999. Paperback. Very Good. Former library book; May have limited writing in cover pages. Pages are unmarked. ~ ThriftBooks: Read More, Spend Less.Dust jacket quality is not guaranteed.
Synopsis
Ghostwritten, David Mitchell's acclaimed first novel, interweaves nine independent plots from characters in locations around the world - all seemingly connected by chance events. Winner of the John Llewellyn Rhys Prize - issued for the best work of fiction in the commonwealth by an author under 35 - many of the themes persist through much of Mitchell's subsequent work.
Read More: Identifying first editions of Ghostwritten : A Novel
Reviews
On Mar 26 2014, CloggieDownunder said:
Ghostwritten is the first novel by British author, David Mitchell. Told by nine different narrators, with a plot spanning centuries and continents, this is an amazing debut novel. The narrators are a member of a doomsday cult who releases poison gas in a subway in Tokyo, and details his retreat to Okinawa and a small nearby island, Kume-jima; a jazz aficionado who works as a sales clerk in a Tokyo music store; a lawyer in a financial institution in Hong Kong who has been moving large sums of money from a certain account; a woman who owns a Tea Shack on China's Holy Mountain and speaks to a tree; a non-corporeal sentient entity which is searching for who or what it is; a gallery attendant in Petersburg who is involved in an art theft scam; a ghostwriter/drummer living in London who saves a woman from being run over by a taxi; an Irish nuclear physicist who quits her job when she finds her research is being used for military purposes; and a late night radio talkback DJ who finds himself fielding calls from an intriguing caller referring to himself as the zookeeper. Mitchell weaves together these nine narrations into a cohesive whole with vague or occasionally direct references to a myriad of common themes, characters, objects, or words (including, but not limited to, albino conger eels, camphor trees, an earth-bound comet, Kilmagoon whiskey, jazz music, cleaning toilets and artificial intelligence) in each narration. His characters muse on, ponder and articulate on various themes: love/lust; chance/fate; brainwashing; propaganda; one's own place in the world; why we are who we are; principles; and the character of London Underground Lines; There is humour, irony, intrigue, and a plentiful helping of tongue-in-cheek comments. And when Mo Muntervary tells Father Wally “Phenomena are interconnected regardless of distance, in a holistic ocean more voodoo than Newton”, she could be describing Mitchell’s own love affair with connections: fans of Mitchell's work will also recognise certain characters and concepts from his other novels, in particular, Cloud Atlas, Black Swan Green and number9dream. This is a brilliant debut novel.
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Details
- Bookseller
- ThriftBooks (US)
- Bookseller's Inventory #
- G0340739746I4N10
- Title
- Ghostwritten : A Novel
- Author
- Mitchell, David
- Format/Binding
- Paperback
- Book Condition
- Used - Very Good
- Quantity Available
- 1
- ISBN 10
- 0340739746
- ISBN 13
- 9780340739747
- Publisher
- Sceptre
- Place of Publication
- London
- Date Published
- 1999
Terms of Sale
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Glossary
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- Jacket
- Sometimes used as another term for dust jacket, a protective and often decorative wrapper, usually made of paper which wraps...