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The Ghost Writer

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About this listen

Brought to you by Penguin.

When talented young writer Nathan Zuckerman makes his pilgrimage to sit at the feet of his hero, the reclusive master of American Literature, E. I. Lonoff, he soon finds himself enmeshed in the great Jewish writer's domestic life, with all its complexity, artifice and drive for artistic truth.

As Nathan sits in breathlessly awkward conversation with his idol, a glimpse of a dark-haired beauty through a closing doorway leaves him reeling. He soon learns that the entrancing vision is Amy Bellette, but her position in the Lonoff household - student? mistress? - remains tantalisingly unclear. Over a disturbed and confusing dinner, Nathan gleans snippets of Amy's haunting Jewish background, and begins to draw his own fantastical conclusions...

©2016 Philip Roth (P)2023 Penguin Audio

 Genre Fiction Jewish Literary Fiction Psychological World Literature Fiction

Critic reviews

Roth's best novel yet
I had only to read the two opening sentences to realize that I was once again in the hands of a superbly endowed storyteller
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
His prose is immaculate yet curiously plain and unostentatious, as natural as brething (Al Alvarez)
All stars
Most relevant
And brilliantly read too, full of humour and life all the way, hillgartner reads with palpable passion for roths tone and voice, it feels like having the author himself read to you

One of roths best

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