Items related to The Ghost Writer

Harwood, John The Ghost Writer ISBN 13: 9780156032322

The Ghost Writer - Softcover

 
9780156032322: The Ghost Writer
View all copies of this ISBN edition:
 
 
A tantalizing tale of suspense and family secrets that weaves Victorian ghost stories into the present—where they start to come true

Timid, solitary librarian Gerard Freeman lives for just two things: his elusive pen pal Alice and a story he found hidden in his mother’s drawer years ago. Written by his great-grandmother Viola, it hints at his mother's role in a sinister crime. And as he discovers more of Viola’s chilling tales, he realizes that they might hold the key to finding Alice and unveiling his family's mystery—or will they bring him the untimely death they seem to foretell?

Harwood’s astonishing, assured debut shows us just how dangerous family skeletons—and stories—can be.
 

"synopsis" may belong to another edition of this title.

Review:
The Cornish prayer: "From ghoulies and ghosties and long-leggety beasties and things that go bump in the night, Good Lord, deliver us!" is an appropriate invocation when reading The Ghost Writer, John Harwood’s debut novel. It is a rousing good ghost story, with many twists and turns, rather like taking apart a Russian matryoshka nesting doll.

Gerard Freeman, at age ten, sneaks into his mother's room and unlocks a secret drawer, only to find a picture of a woman he has never seen before, but one that he will find again and again. His mother discovers him and gives him the beating of his life. Why this excessive reaction? She is a worried, paranoid, thin, and fretful type with an "anxious, haunted look." By tale's end, we know why.

Phyllis Freeman, Gerard's mother, was happiest when speaking fondly of Staplefield, her childhood home, where there were things they "didn’t have in Mawson [Australia], chaffinches and mayflies and foxgloves and hawthorn, coopers and farriers and old Mr. Bartholomew who delivered fresh milk and eggs to their house with his horse and cart." It's the sort of childhood idyll that the timid and lonely Gerard believes in and longs for. He strikes up a correspondence with an English "penfriend," Alice Jessel, when he is 13 and a half, living in a desolate place with a frantic mother and a silent father. She is his age, her parents were killed in an accident and she has been crippled by it. She now lives in an institution, whose grounds she describes as much the way Staplefield looked. They go through young adulthood together, in letters only, thousands of miles apart, eventuallydeclaring their love for one another.

Interwoven with the narrative of Alice and Gerard's letters are real ghost stories, the creation of Gerard's great-grandmother, Viola. At first, they seem to be scary Victorian tales of the supernatural. Then, we see that they have a spooky way of mirroring, or preceding, events in real life, off the page. Gerard comes upon them, one by one, in mysterious ways, but clearly something, or someone, is leading him. The stories seem to implicate his mother in some nefarious goings-on, but the truth is far worse than Gerard imagines.

Any more would be telling too much. Turn on all the lights in the house when you settle down with this one, and plan to spend a long time reading because you will be lost in the story immediately. --Valerie Ryan

Book Description:
Published in hardcover by Harcourt, 2004, 0-15-101074-9

"About this title" may belong to another edition of this title.

  • PublisherMariner Books
  • Publication date2005
  • ISBN 10 0156032325
  • ISBN 13 9780156032322
  • BindingPaperback
  • Edition number1
  • Number of pages369
  • Rating

Other Popular Editions of the Same Title

9780151010745: The Ghost Writer

Featured Edition

ISBN 10:  ISBN 13:  9780151010745
Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2004
Hardcover

  • 9780099460824: The Ghost Writer

    Vintag..., 2005
    Softcover

  • 9780224071130: The Ghost Writer

    Harcourt, 2004
    Softcover

  • 9780224084512: The Ghost Writer

    Jonath..., 2007
    Softcover

Top Search Results from the AbeBooks Marketplace

Stock Image

Harwood, John
Published by Mariner Books (2005)
ISBN 10: 0156032325 ISBN 13: 9780156032322
New Softcover Quantity: 1
Seller:
Ebooksweb
(Bensalem, PA, U.S.A.)

Book Description Condition: New. . Seller Inventory # 52GZZZ009TFU_ns

More information about this seller | Contact seller

Buy New
US$ 8.47
Convert currency

Add to Basket

Shipping: FREE
Within U.S.A.
Destination, rates & speeds
Stock Image

Harwood, John
Published by Mariner Books (2005)
ISBN 10: 0156032325 ISBN 13: 9780156032322
New Softcover Quantity: > 20
Seller:
BookShop4U
(PHILADELPHIA, PA, U.S.A.)

Book Description Condition: New. . Seller Inventory # 5AUZZZ000U2Q_ns

More information about this seller | Contact seller

Buy New
US$ 8.47
Convert currency

Add to Basket

Shipping: FREE
Within U.S.A.
Destination, rates & speeds
Stock Image

Harwood, John
Published by Mariner Books (2005)
ISBN 10: 0156032325 ISBN 13: 9780156032322
New paperback Quantity: 1
Seller:
Barnes & Nooyen Books
(Spring, TX, U.S.A.)

Book Description paperback. Condition: New. New Condition, Paperback book, Seller Inventory # 2306270106

More information about this seller | Contact seller

Buy New
US$ 9.00
Convert currency

Add to Basket

Shipping: FREE
Within U.S.A.
Destination, rates & speeds
Stock Image

John Harwood
Published by Harvest Books (2005)
ISBN 10: 0156032325 ISBN 13: 9780156032322
New Softcover Quantity: 1
Seller:

Book Description Condition: New. 2005. Reprint. Paperback. New. Seller Inventory # P008356

More information about this seller | Contact seller

Buy New
US$ 6.50
Convert currency

Add to Basket

Shipping: US$ 4.00
Within U.S.A.
Destination, rates & speeds
Stock Image

Harwood, John
Published by Mariner Books (2005)
ISBN 10: 0156032325 ISBN 13: 9780156032322
New Softcover Quantity: 1
Seller:
GF Books, Inc.
(Hawthorne, CA, U.S.A.)

Book Description Condition: New. Book is in NEW condition. Seller Inventory # 0156032325-2-1

More information about this seller | Contact seller

Buy New
US$ 12.46
Convert currency

Add to Basket

Shipping: FREE
Within U.S.A.
Destination, rates & speeds
Stock Image

Harwood, John
Published by Mariner Books (2005)
ISBN 10: 0156032325 ISBN 13: 9780156032322
New paperback Quantity: 1
Seller:
THEVILLAGEBOOKSTORE
(Fall River, MA, U.S.A.)

Book Description paperback. Condition: New. PAP. Seller Inventory # 53MS900006CZ

More information about this seller | Contact seller

Buy New
US$ 8.49
Convert currency

Add to Basket

Shipping: US$ 3.99
Within U.S.A.
Destination, rates & speeds
Stock Image

Harwood, John
Published by Mariner Books (2005)
ISBN 10: 0156032325 ISBN 13: 9780156032322
New Softcover Quantity: 1
Seller:
Book Deals
(Tucson, AZ, U.S.A.)

Book Description Condition: New. New! This book is in the same immaculate condition as when it was published. Seller Inventory # 353-0156032325-new

More information about this seller | Contact seller

Buy New
US$ 19.45
Convert currency

Add to Basket

Shipping: FREE
Within U.S.A.
Destination, rates & speeds
Seller Image

Harwood, John
Published by Harvest Books 6/1/2005 (2005)
ISBN 10: 0156032325 ISBN 13: 9780156032322
New Paperback or Softback Quantity: 5
Seller:
BargainBookStores
(Grand Rapids, MI, U.S.A.)

Book Description Paperback or Softback. Condition: New. The Ghost Writer 0.8. Book. Seller Inventory # BBS-9780156032322

More information about this seller | Contact seller

Buy New
US$ 19.46
Convert currency

Add to Basket

Shipping: FREE
Within U.S.A.
Destination, rates & speeds
Stock Image

Harwood, John
Published by Mariner Books (2005)
ISBN 10: 0156032325 ISBN 13: 9780156032322
New Softcover Quantity: > 20
Seller:
Lucky's Textbooks
(Dallas, TX, U.S.A.)

Book Description Condition: New. Seller Inventory # ABLING22Oct2018170005136

More information about this seller | Contact seller

Buy New
US$ 17.84
Convert currency

Add to Basket

Shipping: US$ 3.99
Within U.S.A.
Destination, rates & speeds
Seller Image

Harwood, John
Published by Mariner Books (2005)
ISBN 10: 0156032325 ISBN 13: 9780156032322
New Softcover Quantity: 5
Seller:
GreatBookPrices
(Columbia, MD, U.S.A.)

Book Description Condition: New. Seller Inventory # 3244522-n

More information about this seller | Contact seller

Buy New
US$ 19.34
Convert currency

Add to Basket

Shipping: US$ 2.64
Within U.S.A.
Destination, rates & speeds

There are more copies of this book

View all search results for this book