Ghostwritten

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Ghostwritten is the first novel published by the author David Mitchell. Published in 1999, it won the John Llewellyn Rhys Prize and was widely acclaimed. The story takes place mainly around Southeast Asia, but also moves through Russia, Britain and the USA. It is written episodically; each chapter details a different story and central character, although they are all interlinked through seemingly coincidental events. Many of the themes from Ghostwritten continue in Mitchell's subsequent novels, number9dream and Cloud Atlas.

Ghostwritten is the subject of a number of influences, particularly from Southeast Asian culture and superstition, as well as real events remodeled for plot purposes (e.g. The Sarin gas attack on the Tokyo subway). There are also hints and references to other works, most prominently from Isaac Asimov and the Three Laws of Robotics towards the end of the book, as well as Wild Swans by Jung Chang and The Music of Chance by Paul Auster.

Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.

Contents

[edit] Plot

[edit] Okinawa

This details the actions of a member of a millenarianist doomsday cult, attempting to evade capture after releasing nerve agents into a Tokyo Subway train. He believes himself to be able to converse telepathically with 'His Serendipity', leader of the cult, and regards ordinary people with disgust, waiting for an apocalyptic moment — a comet's prophesied collision with earth — in which they will be destroyed.

[edit] Tokyo

In a seemingly unlinked move, the spotlight lands on Satoru, a young Japanese jazz lover working in a record shop in downtown Tokyo. He is driven out of his endless routine by a girl equally entranced by jazz, with whom he falls in love.

[edit] Hong Kong

The life of financial lawyer Neal Brose starts to unravel as he tries to cope with the money laundering deal he is carrying out, and impending divorce. In the grip of a debilitating diabetic condition he drops dead, sending shockwaves through the economy of the world which have a major impact on further storylines.

[edit] Holy Mountain

The reminiscences of a woman who lived through the late feudalism of China through to the surge of new ideas in the twentieth century and the shocking brutality of Communism under Mao Zedong. The solitude of the Holy Mountain and hope for her illegitimate daughter keeps her alive through the defining points of China's turbulent recent history, and allow her to make her peace with the world.

[edit] Mongolia

Urban and rural Mongolia is seen through the eyes of a disembodied spirit, a 'noncorpus' which survives by inhabiting living hosts. Whilst generally non-malevolent, the spirit uses whatever measures necessary to discover more about its birth and the nature of its existence.

[edit] Petersburg

Involved in a Russian art heist, curator Margarita Latunsky lives out a squalid existence as concubine and sleeper agent in the Hermitage Museum. As repercussions from the business crash in Hong Kong and events in Mongolia ripple towards Russia, her life and the lies she has forced herself to believe are torn apart.

[edit] London

In the first direct reference to the title of the novel, the action jumps to London and the exploits of Marco, a ghostwriter-cum-drummer, scraping a living whilst barely avoiding the darker seductions of the capital. Complex plotlines involving the science of chance and destabilization of the world, sparked off in earlier chapters, begin to pick up speed.

[edit] Clear Island

Mo Muntervary, a quantum physicist on the run from American federal agents, attempts to hide in her homeland of County Cork, Ireland. Forced to consider the terrible implications of her scientific discoveries, and what they could do in the wrong hands, she makes a number of decisions which prove pivotal as nuclear warfare blossoms uncontrollably across the globe.

[edit] Night Train

Bat Segundo, a late night radio show host, bears witness to cataclystic conflict as nations rain missiles on each other and martial law is declared. Given exclusive access to the enigmatic 'Zookeeper' by a strange twist of fate, he attempts to make sense of a world held in the grip of terrifying forces. The mysterious identity and nature of the Zookeeper is unravelled as the Zookeeper attempts to stop the spiral of chaos which was set off in the very first chapters.

[edit] Underground

The final section returns to the perspective of the cult member from the Okinawa chapter. He appears to be attempting to stage an attack on a metro system, but as he travels on it strands from all of the other chapters of the book are introduced via his hallucinations. He is left on a station platform, pondering what is real.

[edit] External links

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