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Ghostwritten
by Mitchell, David
- Used
- Paperback
- Signed
- Condition
- Very Good+/No Jacket as Issued
- ISBN 10
- 0340739746
- ISBN 13
- 9780340739747
- Seller
-
Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada
Payment Methods Accepted
About This Item
London, England: Sceptre, 1999. Book. Very Good+. Soft cover. Signed by Author(s). Advanced Uncorrected Proof. Complete number line from 1 to 10; signed and dated 2010 by David Mitchell on the title page with no inscription and his characteristic curlicues at the Vancouver International Writers Festival; minor edge wear; otherwise a solid, clean copy in collectible condition..
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
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
- Seller
- Hourglass Books (CA)
- Seller's Inventory #
- 003057
- Title
- Ghostwritten
- Author
- Mitchell, David
- Format/Binding
- Paperback
- Book Condition
- Used - Very Good+
- Jacket Condition
- No Jacket as Issued
- Edition
- Advanced Uncorrected Proof
- ISBN 10
- 0340739746
- ISBN 13
- 9780340739747
- Publisher
- Sceptre
- Place of Publication
- London, England
- Date Published
- 1999
- Keywords
- British Fiction
- Bookseller catalogs
- High-End Books;
Terms of Sale
Hourglass Books
30 day return guarantee, with full refund including original shipping costs for up to 30 days after delivery if an item arrives misdescribed or damaged.
About the Seller
Hourglass Books
Biblio member since 2018
Vancouver, British Columbia
About Hourglass Books
I list a wide range of materials from both modern firsts to antiquarian books.
Glossary
Some terminology that may be used in this description includes:
- Number Line
- A series of numbers appearing on the copyright page of a book, where the lowest number generally indicates the printing of that...
- Title Page
- A page at the front of a book which may contain the title of the book, any subtitles, the authors, contributors, editors, the...
- Good+
- A term used to denote a condition a slight grade better than Good.
- Uncorrected Proof
- An uncorrected proof is a printed copy of a book that needs to be reviewed for errors and corrections. They are released prior...