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The Ghost Writer

Published
Aug 1979
Main Genre
General Fiction General Fiction
Rating
Pages
224
Series

About This Book

The novel that first introduced the Pulitzer Prize–winnning author's most acclaimed character, Nathan Zuckerman, a budding writer infatuated with the Great Books, who meets a haunting young woman at the secluded New England farmhouse of his idol.

"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." —The Washington Post

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 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.

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First Edition Aug 1979 Farrar, Straus and Giroux ISBN 0374161895
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May 1982 Fawcett ISBN 0449200094
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Oct 1980 Random House ISBN 0449243222
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Aug 1995 Vintage ISBN 0679748989
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Jun 2005 Vintage (UK) ISBN 0099477572
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Jul 2013 Vintage ISBN 1446401340
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Jul 2013 Knopf ISBN 0593684923
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Jul 2013 Farrar, Straus and Giroux ISBN 1466846437
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Jul 2013 Farrar, Straus and Giroux ISBN B00D0KWGLI
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Apr 2026 Mariner Books Classics ISBN 0063499703
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Oct 2008 Recorded Books ISBN B001JDPXXQ
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Apr 2016 Blackstone Audio, Inc. ISBN B01EQHPTLW
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May 2016 Blackstone Audiobooks ISBN 150472657X
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May 2016 Blackstone Audiobooks ISBN 1504726588
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May 2016 Blackstone Audiobooks ISBN 1504726596
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