View source for The Ghost Writer

{{short description|1979 novel by Philip Roth}}
{{hatnote|Not to be confused with the 2010 film ''[[The Ghost Writer (film)|The Ghost Writer]]'', which was based on the novel ''[[The Ghost (Harris novel)|The Ghost]]'' by Robert Harris.}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=March 2025}}
{{Infobox book|<!-- See Wikipedia:WikiProject_Novels or Wikipedia:WikiProject_Books -->
| name              = The Ghost Writer
| title_orig        = 
| translator        = 
| image             = The Ghost Writer cover.jpg
| image_size        = 200px
| caption           = First edition cover
| author            = [[Philip Roth]]
| illustrator       = 
| cover_artist      = 
| country           = United States
| language          = English
| series            = ''[[Zuckerman Bound]]''
| genre             = Novel
| publisher         = [[Farrar, Straus & Giroux]]
| release_date      = 19 September 1979
| english_release_date = 
| media_type        = Print (hardback & paperback)
| pages             = 180 pp
| isbn              = 0-374-16189-5
| dewey             = 813/.5/4
| congress          = PZ4.R8454 Gh PS3568.O855
| oclc              = 4933340
| preceded_by       = 
| followed_by       = [[Zuckerman Unbound]]
}}

{{More plot|date=September 2018}}
'''''The Ghost Writer''''' is a 1979 novel by the American author [[Philip Roth]]. It is the first of Roth's novels narrated by [[Nathan Zuckerman]], one of the author's putative fictional [[alter ego]]s, and constitutes the first book in his ''[[Zuckerman Bound]]'' trilogy. The novel touches on themes common to many Roth works, including identity, the responsibilities of authors to their subjects, and the condition of Jews in America. Parts of the novel are a reprise of ''[[The Diary of Anne Frank]]''.<ref name="Moraru05p224-5">[[Christian Moraru|Moraru, Christian]] (2005) [https://books.google.com/books?id=W4Es05qXYeIC ''Memorious discourse: reprise and representation in postmodernism''], pp.224-25</ref>

== Plot introduction==
Nathan Zuckerman is a promising young writer who spends a night in the home of E.I. Lonoff (a portrait, it has been argued, of [[Bernard Malamud]] or [[Henry Roth]], or a composite of both),<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://forward.com/culture/11915/a-life-torn-between-myth-and-fact-00701/|title=A Life Torn Between Myth and Fact|last=Cohen|first=Joshua|date=October 31, 2007|website=The Forward|language=en-US|access-date=2019-05-29}}</ref> an established author whom Zuckerman idolizes. Also staying in the Lonoff home is Amy Bellette, a young woman with a vague past whom the narrator apparently comes to suspect of being [[Anne Frank]], living in the United States anonymously, having survived the Holocaust. Many have observed similarities between Lonoff and [[Isaac Bashevis Singer]].<ref>{{Cite web | url=https://www.nytimes.com/1979/09/04/archives/books-of-the-times-father-doesnt-approve.html|title=Books of the Times|date=1979-09-04|website=The New York Times|language=en-US|access-date=2020-12-25}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1984/01/17/arts/tv-adaptation-of-philip-roth-s-ghost-writer.html|title=TV: ADAPTATION OF PHILIP ROTH'S 'GHOST WRITER'|date=1984-01-17|website=The New York Times|language=en-US|access-date=2020-12-25}}</ref>

==Television movie==
In 1983 a television adaptation was made of the book in the UK. It was directed by [[Tristram Powell]] and starred [[Rose Arrick]], [[Claire Bloom]], [[Sam Wanamaker]], [[Cecile Mann]], [[MacIntyre Dixon]], [[Mark Linn-Baker]], Ralph Morse, [[Joseph Wiseman]], and [[Patricia Fellows]].

==Critical reception==
The book was widely praised at publication. In ''[[The New York Times Book Review]]'', critic Harold Bloom said of the three collected Zuckerman novels, "''Zuckerman Bound'' merits something reasonably close to the highest level of esthetic praise for tragicomedy."<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1985/05/19/books/his-long-ordeal-by-laughter.html|title=His Long Ordeal by Laughter|last=Bloom|first=Harold|date=1985-05-19|work=The New York Times|access-date=2019-05-29|language=en-US|issn=0362-4331}}</ref>

In 2018, ''[[Esquire (magazine)|Esquire]]'' listed ''The Ghost Writer'' as one of Roth's seven essential books.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.esquire.com/entertainment/g20878967/best-philip-roth-books/|title=Seven Essential Philip Roth Books|last=Coates|first=Tyler|date=2018-05-23|website=Esquire|language=en-US|access-date=2019-11-22}}</ref>

==Awards==
The Pulitzer committee for fiction selected ''The Ghost Writer'' for the prize in 1980. The Pulitzer board, which has final say over awarding the prize, overrode their decision and chose [[Norman Mailer|Norman Mailer's]] ''[[The Executioner's Song]]'' instead.<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1984/05/11/books/publishing-pulitzer-controversies.html|title=Publishing: Pulitzer Controversies|last=McDowell|first=Edwin|date=1984-05-11|work=The New York Times|access-date=2019-05-29|page=C26|language=en-US|issn=0362-4331}}</ref> The book was also a finalist for the 1980 [[National Book Award]].<ref>{{cite web|title=National Book Awards - 1980|url=https://www.nationalbook.org/awards-prizes/national-book-awards-1980#.UtWFFCiyVcg|work=National Book Foundation|accessdate=14 January 2014}}</ref>

==''Exit Ghost''==
In 2007, Roth published the novel ''[[Exit Ghost]]'', which [[Michiko Kakutani]] in ''[[The New York Times]]'' called "elegiac" and "a kind of valedictory bookend to ''The Ghost Writer''."<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2007/10/02/books/02kaku.html|title=Seeking a Moral at the End of the Tale|last=Kakutani|first=Michiko|date=2007-10-02|work=The New York Times|access-date=2019-05-29|page=E1|language=en-US|issn=0362-4331}}</ref>

==External links==
* {{IMDb title|qid=Q123616177|title=The Ghost Writer}}
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20170818131426/http://www.bfi.org.uk/films-tv-people/4ce2b71e70c42 ''The Ghost Writer'' on BFI]
* [https://www.nytimes.com/books/98/10/11/specials/roth-unbound.html Harold Bloom on ''Zuckerman Bound'']

==References==
<references/>
{{PhilipRoth}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Ghost Writer}}
[[Category:1979 American novels]]
[[Category:Novels about writers]]
[[Category:Fiction about ghostwriting]]
[[Category:Books about Anne Frank]]
[[Category:American novels adapted into films]]
[[Category:American novels adapted into television shows]]
[[Category:Novels by Philip Roth]]
[[Category:Farrar, Straus and Giroux books]]