was David Mitchell’s first novel, published in 1999 when its author was working as an English language teacher in Japan. It is his most important novel so far, apart from his metafictional masterpiece

(2004). It was awarded the

/John Llewellyn Rees Prize and was shortlisted for the

First Book Award.

Ghostwritten is subtitled A Novel in Nine Parts: each of the parts is centred on a different first-person narrator. A short tenth part reprises the voice of the first. Mitchell’s personal experience of travel, and especially of living in Japan, informs the novel: the titles of the parts refer to their widely diverse locations. In “Okinawa”, Quasar, a terrorist devoted to the sinister cult leader His Serendipity, has just perpetrated a gas

1508 words

Citation: Stephenson, William. "Ghostwritten". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 09 February 2012 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=24862, accessed 31 October 2024.]

• View recommended reading for this article