Ghostwritten

The extraordinary first novel from the author of Cloud Atlas

By: David Mitchell

Narrated by: Daniel Loh York, Eugenia Low, Grainne Gillis, Lucy Paterson, Sadeo Ueda, Simon Slater, Thomas Judd, Tina Chiang

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Winner of the Mail on Sunday/John Llewellyn Rhys Prize.

A magnificent achievement and an engrossing experience, David Mitchell's first novel announced the arrival of one of the most exciting writers of the twenty-first century.

An apocalyptic cult member carries out a gas attack on a rush-hour metro, but what links him to a jazz buff in downtown Tokyo? Or to a Mongolian gangster, a woman on a holy mountain who talks to a tree, and a late night New York DJ?

Set at the fugitive edges of Asia and Europe, Ghostwritten weaves together a host of characters, their interconnected destinies determined by the inescapable forces of cause and effect.

(P) 2020 Hodder & Stoughton Ltd©1999 David Mitchell

Critic reviews

Demands to be read and re-read . . . an astonishing debut

One of the best first novels I've read in a long time . . . I couldn't put it down (A. S. Byatt)

A remarkable novel by a young writer of remarkable talent

The best first novel I have read in ages . . . it beguiles, informs, shocks and captivates (William Boyd)

Mitchell plays one extraordinary riff after another . . . If you want to know what the distinctive literature of the 21st century will look like, begin here (Boyd Tonkin)

Fabulously atmospheric and wryly perceptive . . . a huge new talent

A remarkable first novel

Engaging and engrossing

The most breathtaking debut I've ever read (Sue Perkins)

Gripping and innovative

An extraordinarily assured novel of global reach and millennial ambition

This first novel displays a cool and intelligent virtuosity and an amazingly copious imagination

A brilliantly constructed novel which you must read for yourself . . . truly a masterpiece (Books of the Year)

Tautly plotted and with the page-turning qualities of a thriller, Ghostwritten is an intoxicating read and is in danger of giving the post-modern novel a good name

Astonishingly accomplished

Full of sly and sometimes beautiful surprises . . . worth a dozen of the morally anorexic first novels that regularly come down the pipe. Ghostwritten may conclude with the end of the world, but I, for one, am hoping for more (Daniel Mendelsohn)

A dazzling piece of work

Elegantly composed, gracefully plotted and full of humour . . . It recalls Tolstoy and Dostoevsky in its emotional scope and its ambitions. Like the great Russians, Mitchell makes us feel that more is at stake than individual lives, although it's by individual lives that pain and loss are measured

Mitchell deftly sketches each character to such a compelling extent that you become totally immersed

Masterfully woven tapestry

What a rich read! With characters from Japanese jazz junkies and Antebellum aunts to the Devil incarnate, all interconnected through time and space via quantum physics/black magic?
And considering it was written at the turn of the century (the 21st) it feels eerily prophetic.
Just don’t hold out for any concrete happy endings...although everything is possible 😉