The Ghost Writer, Philip Roth
The Ghost Writer, Philip Roth
List: $16.95 | Sale: $11.87
Club: $8.47

The Ghost Writer

Author: Philip Roth

Narrator: Malcolm Hillgartner

Unabridged: 4 hr 31 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 05/03/2016

Synopsis

The Ghost Writer introduces Nathan Zuckerman in the 1950s, a budding writer infatuated with the great books, discovering the contradictory claims of literature and experience while an overnight guest in the secluded New England farmhouse of his idol, E. I. Lonoff.At Lonoff’s, Zuckerman meets Amy Bellette, a haunting young woman of indeterminate foreign background who turns out to be a former student of Lonoff’s and who may also have been his mistress. Zuckerman, with his active, youthful imagination, wonders if she could be the paradigmatic victim of Nazi persecution. If she were, it might change his life.The first volume in the Nathan Zuckerman series, The Ghost Writer is about the tensions between literature and life, artistic truthfulness and conventional decency—and about those implacable practitioners who live with the consequences of sacrificing one for the other.

About Philip Roth

Philip Roth (1933–2018) was one of the most decorated writers in American history, having won the Pulitzer Prize in fiction, the National Book Critics Circle Award twice, the PEN/Faulkner Award three times, the National Book Award, and many more. He also won the Ambassador Book Award of the English-Speaking Union and in the same year received the National Medal of Arts at the White House. In 2001 he received the highest award of the American Academy of Arts and Letters, the Gold Medal in Fiction, given every six years “for the entire work of the recipient.”

About Malcolm Hillgartner

Malcolm Hillgartner is an accomplished actor, writer, and musician. Named an AudioFile Best Voice of 2013 and the recipient of several Earphones Awards, he has narrated over 250 audiobooks.

Reviews

Goodreads review by mark on August 04, 2017

the boy ghost-writes the story of a girl's life. he turns her into a lure, a mystery, a travesty, into the best way to illustrate his Jewishness, the best way to thumb his nose at his parents and all the adults who would dare condescend to him. the boy is a writer, one who has yet to experience life......more

Goodreads review by Dave on August 30, 2019

I read Roth when I was in my late teens and early twenties, and only returned to reading him in recent years. I thought The American Trilogy was amazing, as was The Plot Against America. The Ghost Writer is the first of ten books narrated by the autobiographically-oriented narrator Nathan Zuckerman,......more

Goodreads review by Douglas on July 12, 2014

How did this not win the Pulitzer? How has Roth not won a Nobel? This was one of the most brilliant works of art I've ever encountered. Far and away, the best book I've read all year. This is the type of book I always hope to encounter when I read fiction. Beautiful sentences, powerful dialogue, the......more

Quotes

“Arguably Philip Roth’s best novel…In The Ghost Writer, published in 1979, Mr. Roth found the virtually perfect balance for the themes that have long obsessed him, most notably the tension between being a loyal Jewish son, in terms of both family and community, and being an unfettered creative writer.” New York Times

“Further evidence that Roth can do practically anything with fiction. His narrative power—the ability to delight the reader simultaneously with the telling and the tale—is superb.” Washington Post

“I had only to read the two opening sentences to realize that I was once again in the hands of a superbly endowed storyteller.” New York Review of Books

“Roth underlines none of [the] elegant theme-weaving, letting it all emerge through dazzling dialogue and his most understated, almost folktale-like prose…Elegantly floating and at the same time firmly grounded to home and heart—a sonata-like masterwork.” Kirkus Reviews (starred review)

Awards

  • Pulitzer Prize
Add to Cart
Add to Wish List