Ghostwritten

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By David Mitchell

Publisher Description

By the New York Times bestselling author of The Bone Clocks and Cloud Atlas

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.

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Ghostwritten Reviews

3.5

Jean Miller

Created 2 days ago

t-monaghan

Created 3 months ago

Memorable Multilayered Clever plotting Epic scope Bleak Harsh Immersive world-building Picturesque Vivid descriptions Beautifully-written Descriptive Easy to read

Jack Buckingham

Created 3 months ago

“One of my favourite books ever. A true five-star no-notes kind of read. The kind of book that makes you want to give up writing because you can’t even begin to imagine competing. Perfect in every way.”

Megan 🦋

Created 3 months ago

Mark Redman

Created 3 months ago

“I just finished Ghostwritten by David Mitchell not my first Mitchell book, but definitely one of the more intriguing ones. As usual, he doesn’t go for a straightforward narrative. Instead, he gives us a globe-spanning collection of loosely connected short stories that gradually start to reveal a bigger picture. If you’ve read Cloud Atlas, you’ll see some of the seeds planted here, though this one’s a bit more fragmented and dreamlike. What stood out to me were some of the characters, Quasar, the doomsday cultist from the opening chapter, immediately pulls you into this unsettling, paranoid headspace. He’s not exactly someone you root for, but Mitchell gets deep inside his mind, and it’s eerie how convincing it feels. Then there’s Satoru, the jazz-loving record store clerk in Tokyo—probably my favorite. His chapter was more grounded and emotional, and I found myself really invested in his quiet, awkward attempts at connection. The story with the ghost or noncorporeal being (I won’t spoil too much) was where things started to get weird but in a way that I’ve come to expect from Mitchell. That chapter was heavy on the philosophy and light on the character depth, so I didn’t connect with it as much, but it definitely added a layer to the book’s broader themes fate, consciousness, the ripple effects of small decisions. Not every storyline landed equally for me. A few characters felt more like vehicles for ideas than fully fleshed-out people. But overall, the way Mitchell threads connections between them sometimes subtly, sometimes overtly is impressive. You start noticing echoes, shared events, and recurring motifs, and it’s pretty satisfying when those puzzle pieces begin to fit. In the end, I wouldn’t say Ghostwritten the most emotionally resonant book, but it’s probably one of his most ambitious in terms of scope and experimentation that I’ve read so far. It’s not a casual read and you kind of have to lean in and let the story (or stories) carry you, even when you’re not quite sure where you are. But if you’re already into Mitchell’s style, there’s a lot to chew on here.”

Believable Diverse representation Memorable Multilayered Original Clever plotting Disjointed Nonlinear narrative Atmospheric Dark Expansive Mysterious Realistic Surreal Beautifully-written

About David Mitchell

David Mitchell is the award-winning and bestselling author of Slade House, The Bone Clocks, The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet, Black Swan Green, Cloud Atlas, Number9Dream, andGhostwritten. Twice shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize, Mitchell was named one of the 100 most influential people in the world by Time in 2007. With KA Yoshida, Mitchell translated from the Japanese the internationally bestselling memoir The Reason I Jump. He lives in Ireland with his wife and two children.